Ambera Wellmann (born 1982 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia) is a Canadian painter who depicts human bodies in between play and violence, movement and dissolution. She has exhibited internationally at venues including Lulu in

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, the 16th Istanbul Biennale in 2019, MoMA Warsaw, and others. Wellmann is based between Mexico City,

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Artistic background

Wellmann's earlier paintings were inspired by various personal experiences of either emotional or erotic encounters. Her figurative approach often showed the horizontal domain of the bed against amorphous bodies pushing against the boundary of social binaries. Wellmann approaches their paintings with "painterly catachresis" which she describes as a process to deliberately use a word, image, or pictorial representation in a way that is not correct. This manifests through irrational pictorial space and the depiction of an indeterminate number of bodies, genders, species, all without any predetermined visual hierarchy. Wellmann is known for her nested and collage-like painting technique that portrays twisted and abstracted human bodies and animal-like figurines. These techniques are shared by painters Jamian Juliano-Villani and Gregory Edwards.

Exhibition history

In 2020, Wellmann showed at Company gallery in New York City and Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler in Berlin, Germany. For the paintings exhibited at these two shows, poet Jessica Caroline recalls a conceptual likeness to writers like

Georges Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 9 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...

Simone Weil Simone Adolphine Weil ( , ; 3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943) was a French philosopher, mystic, and political activist. Over 2,500 scholarly works have been published about her, including close analyses and readings of her work, since 1995. ...

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

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Julia Kristeva Julia Kristeva (; born Yuliya Stoyanova Krasteva, bg, Юлия Стоянова Кръстева; on 24 June 1941) is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, semiotician, psychoanalyst, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has ...

and painters like

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

Frida Kahlo Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by the country's popular culture, ...

, and nineteenth-century

Romantic painting Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

. Curator Sonja-Maria Borstner notes that the artist's liquid brushstrokes generate a peculiar arena for non-binary identities whose "contested terrain" is constantly under litigation and boundary passing. ''UnTurning,'' Wellmann's first institutional European show opened at the MAC in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

in fall of 2021. In 2021, Wellmann was part of the New Museum Triennial "Soft Water Hard Stone" in New York, NY. The exhibition was curated by

Jamillah James Jamillah James (born 1980) is an American curator. She is the Manilow Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Early life and education James grew up in New Jersey. Her mother was a musician. James's early interest in music and ...

and Margot Norton.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wellmann, Ambera 1982 births Living people 21st-century Canadian painters 21st-century Canadian women artists Artists from Nova Scotia People from Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia