“My approach signifies that “The artist” is not one person, but rather a network of participants and spectators with a common goal.”
BIO >
Born in Missoula, MT, Amanda Browder received an MFA/MA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She currently lives in Brooklyn, producing over 30+ large-scale fabric installations all around the world. Amplifying multiple voices, she collaborates with local community groups and sources her textiles from local donations. Exhibitions include: Triennale Brugge, Project 1: ArtPrize; Sioux City Art Center; SPRING/BREAK Art Fair; Nuit Blanche Public Art Festival/LEITMOTIF Toronto; Dumbo Arts Festival; Hirschhorn Museum; CounterPointe; White Columns, NYC; Nakaochiai Gallery, Tokyo. Published in Unexpected Art: Chronicle Books and Strange Material; Arsenal Pulp Press. She received her first NEA grant in 2016 with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo Art Museum) in Buffalo, NY, and later received two more, one in 2023 with the St. Charles Art Center and 2024 with the Sioux City Art Center. In 2021 she was a NYSCA/NYFA artist fellow. Artist in Residence: UNLV Las Vegas, Erie Arts & Culture & Reach Projects. Photos and reviews have appeared in New York Times to Fiber Art Magazine and founder of art podcast www.badatsports.com
Fabric unites stories, amplifies voices and creates moments of meaning. This work supports non-hierarchical formulations of craft vs. art, and fosters community participation through sewing and dialogue and community participation as a way to connect with others in a time of complex change in our society. Socially based constructs in the public realm inform my work in tandem with my delightful bag-of-tricks: mathematics, color, symmetry, scale and people who are always my truth. The dialog between craft and art is in the work, complementing criticality, and conversation in a site-specific response. My approach signifies that “The artist” is not one, but rather an evolving network of participants and spectators and collaborators. Sculptural gesture and painterly pause are challenged by the fluidity of textiles paralleling craft history in which most artists remain anonymous, the work transcends individual identity to become an expression of a focussed social collective.