We’re happy to report that Artsicle artist Amanda Valdez’s work is currently featured in a group show at the ArtBridge Drawing Room in Chelsea! ArtBridge is a nonprofit organization that strives to support emerging artists in New York City through community programming and other forums for connecting the public with local art. (You might remember Director Jordana Zeldin’s Guest Curation from a couple weeks back.) Called MsBehavior, the show exhibits the work of two other female artists, Polly Shindler and Amy Feldman, alongside Amanda’s, creating a conversation between the three about imperfection and humor, material, and the primal sketch.

Amanda’s work is a refreshingly focused contemplation on shape—shapes coming together, canvas and material shape, and the shape of the body. She says that much of her work is inspired by the experience of the human form: “I think about how it feels to float on a body of water, the space between bodies, the line where two bodies meet, or how the body becomes a container from which things move from the interior to the exterior or vice-versa. In my paintings I focus on those spaces or occurrences and let the materials carry the heavy weight.”

Amanda was very excited to be showing in a curated show with artists she didn’t previously know, a new experience for her after spending three years having the same group of students and teachers interact with her work while completing an MFA at Hunter College. “MsBehavior...gave me so much faith in curators!”

Amanda is now hard at work at an artist-in-residence program at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, where she is preparing for an upcoming group exhibition in Seattle.

MsBehavior has been a great success already, garnering attention both for ArtBridge and the artists: a solo show for Amanda at a new gallery on the Lower East side is now set for the fall! Details will follow. Congratulations to Amanda and Jordana!