Amelia Ishmael is an artist, curator,

music journalist Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

, scholar, and lecturer specializing in

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...

, and

art criticism Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of visual art. Art critics usually criticize art in the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty. A goal of art criticism is the pursuit of a rational basis for art appreciation but it is quest ...

. She received a

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...

in Photography and New Media from the

Kansas City Art Institute The Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) is a private art school in Kansas City, Missouri. The college was founded in 1885 and is an accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and Higher Learning Commission. It has approxi ...

and a Master of Arts in Modern Art History, Theory, and Criticism from the

School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and ...

. She has contributed to publications, including '' One+One Filmmakers Journal'', ''

Art in Print ''Art in Print'' is an international bimonthly art magazine and website devoted to the history and culture of the printed image. Its founding motto, purloined from Leo Steinberg, is “without prints you don’t understand the culture of the world ...

'', ''

Newcity Newcity is a media company based in Chicago, founded in 1986 by Brian and Jan Hieggelke." It started as the ''Newcity'' independent, free weekly newspaper in Chicago. Effective March 2017, the founders changed the newspaper into a glossy monthly ...

'', ''ArtSlant'', ''Art Papers'', ''Review'', ''Art21'', ''Cacophany'', ''Becoming the Forest'', and ''FNews Magazine''. She is the co-editor of and a curator for the interdisciplinary journal ''Helvete: A Journal of Black Metal Theory'', which specializes in black metal theory, and is the editor for the radio publication ''Radius.'' Her curated exhibitions include "Black Thorns in the Black Box" (with Bryan Wendorf) and "Black Thorns in the White Cube". Ishmael first encountered metal music at the age of 14, when she was living in Florida. A friend from her art class introduced her to the band Six Feet Under, and shortly afterward another friend gave her a compilation of songs by

Arcturus , - bgcolor="#FFFAFA" , Note (category: variability): , , H and K emission vary. Arcturus is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Boötes. With an apparent visual magnitude of −0.05, it is the third-brightest of th ...

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Cradle of Filth Cradle of Filth are an English extreme metal band formed in Suffolk in 1991. The band's musical style evolved originally from black metal to a cleaner and more "produced" amalgam of gothic metal, symphonic metal and other metal genres. Their ly ...

Samael Samael ( he, סַמָּאֵל, ''Sammāʾēl'', "Venom/Poison of God"; ar, سمسمائيل, ''Samsama'il'' or ar, سمائل, label=none, ''Samail''; alternatively Smal, Smil, Samil, or Samiel) is an archangel in Talmudic and post-Talmudic ...

, and

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

. This piqued her interest in black metal, and when she relocated to

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

in the late 1990s she attended shows by the local black metal band Descension. During her undergraduate studies she created sound and multimedia art installations, basing many of them off of themes from the ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by moder ...

''. For her Master's thesis she wrote on black metal in contemporary art, work in which her installation "Black Thorns in the White Cube" was grounded. The piece explored how contemporary artists draw upon the languages, iconography, and narratives of black metal – what Ishmael calls the "mythology" of black metal. Reviewers, along with Ishmael herself, noted that some prior exposure to the black metal music scene was helpful for understanding the exhibition.

Selected publications

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Exhibitions

*"Black Thorns in the Black Box" (with Bryan Wendorf) - 2011 *"Black Thorns in the White Cube" - 2012 *"Prelude: The Breath of Charybdis" – 2013 *''.blacK~SSStaTic_darK~fuZZZ_dOOm~glitCH.'' – 2013 *"The Night is No Longer Dead; it has a life of its own" – 2013 *"Prelude: The Breath of Charybdis" *''DIVINITUSSSANIMALUSSSACRÉUSSSORGANUSSS'' (with support by Michelle Puetz and Peter Margasak) – 2014 *"Eccentricities and Disorientations: Experiencing Geometricies in Black Metal" (with Elodie Lesourd) – 2015 *"Bleeding Black Noise" – 2016 *"I Am the Sun" – 2016 *"Only The Truth Disguised in a Dream" – 2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ishmael, Amelia American art historians American editors Academics from Illinois Writers from Chicago American art curators American women curators Artists from Chicago American art critics American music journalists American radio producers Black metal American contemporary artists American feminist writers American music theorists Writers from Kansas City, Missouri Artists from Kansas City, Missouri 21st-century American women artists 21st-century American women writers Women art historians American women musicologists American women editors American women critics Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Historians from Illinois Women radio producers