About the Artist
Biography
Canadian born Amy Shackleton is a professional visual artist - a skilled urban landscape painter with an inventive technique embracing gravity. Her background includes a Fine Arts Honours Degree from York University (Toronto, ON), an extensive exhibition history (e.g. a 2017/18 National Tour exhibiting her 53’ interpretive panorama of Canada) and paintings displayed in hundreds of public and private collections (e.g. THEMUSEUM, Colart Collection, Facebook Canada and the University of Cincinnati). Shackleton is an active member on the Board of Directors at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington and within the larger Ontario and Canadian Arts Community. She works from her studio in Oshawa, Ontario.
Artist Statement
Inspired by her travels, Shackleton’s work explores the conflicting relationships between humanity and the environment by depicting an uncertain future where cities blend with nature. She draws upon the real life urgency regarding climate change (demonstrated in extreme global weather events) and uses visual art to question the future direction – be it utopian or apocalyptic. Renowned for the deliberate absence of human life, her work has been recognized and acknowledged by arts professionals,
“Notably absent in all Shackleton’s paintings are people, traffic and other living presences. Absence leaves space for projection; space, scale and time are ambiguous, incongruencies go unnoticed.” Todd Tremeer (Curator)
“Although Shackleton's paintings are intended to be designs for quotidian urban agriculture of the future, many paintings could also be perceived as jarringly atrophic.” Matthew Ryan Smith (Curator)
Shackleton’s work references opposing forces – the technique (control vs. spontaneity) and the subject matter (architecture vs. nature). Moreover, rather than conventional paintbrushes, she uses squeeze bottles and gravity as her primary tools for creation. Liquid paint is dripped, poured and layered as the canvas is rotated to navigate. Whereas, the architectural aspects of her work are calculated, measured and controlled – as they are precise marks of reality – natural elements embody the spontaneous, unpredictable liquid impulse.
Gallery Representation
Wall Space Gallery (Ottawa)
358 Richmond Road
Ottawa, ON K2A OE8
613-729-0003