Amy Beecher's show of "printed-out paintings" are explored through cantastoria, an ancient and still-practiced method of performing paintings through song. Beecher's libretto borrows language from Hans Hoffman's Search For The Real mixed with assembly instructions for Container Store shelving units. Paintings will be activated as didactic props by a performer on the night of the opening as well as other times during the exhibitions duration.
Container Store Cantastoria, A Picture Story Recitation
(excerpt from libretto)
Acapella
La la la lala la
Into this world we came as naked children
Grasping onto the scaffolds of language and letter
Sweaty palms slipping over standards
Pushing and pulling toward other trendsetters
With joy and sadness and hunger alike
We say to one another
Where is the stronghold of my desire?
What might contain my boundless appetite?
How can we contain ourselves?
How can we contain ourselves?
And what kind of anchors will we need?
Is it drywall or plaster or whatever?
A conscious limitation is paramount for an expression of the in-fin-ite
A MUST HAVE for the sartorial sophisticate.
Amy Beecher is an artist living and working in New York and Vermont. Beecher's work has been presented nationally through exhibitions and public programs at The International Center for Photography, dispersed holdings, Creative Time, Printed Matter, Bruce High Quality Foundation, Eye Level BQE Gallery, and Muelensteen Gallery, all in New York, NY; Torrance Shipman Gallery, 7 Dunham Place, Garden Party Arts and Primetime, all in Brooklyn, NY; GRIN and Providence College-Galleries, both in Providence, RI; The New Art Center, Newton, MA; Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, NY; and Philadelphia Photo Arts Center and Tiger Strikes Asteroid, both in Philadelphia, PA. She has been a fellow in interdisciplinary art at The Macdowell Colony, Peterborough, NH and an artist-in-residence at The New Art Center, Newton, MA, The Shandaken Project, Shandaken, NY and the Digital Media Center for Art at Yale University, New Haven, CT. She holds a MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University and a BA in Visual Art from Brown University. Her podcast is The Amy Beecher Show.