Photo: Marta Sasinowska
Bio
Amanda Gentry is an artist working in ceramic sculpture, painting, and works on paper whose practice centers on the search for a visual language capable of expressing abstract, universal spiritual ideas. Her use of scale and materiality grounds the body in space, heightening awareness and presence in the moment. Gentry’s reductive approach manifests as a stark simplicity of form in service of stillness, quietude, and interiority.
Statement
The work that I make all acts as artifacts of a pursuit within a practice that is not isolated to the studio: a pursuit of a return to oneness, a restoration of a truth of not being separate. While this sensibility is as philosophical as it is spiritual, it also seems to be directly connected to the material, to the physical, to the body. The return, the restoration, is felt in my fingertips as I work the clay. It is felt in my body when I speak into a curve constructed in the studio, the echo of my own voice reverberating back at me, holding me in space. The articulation of this abstract thinking is expressed through simplicity and a terse approach to form through the use of elemental and primal shapes. My use of scale is strategic. It commands my own attention in the making by assuming a presence of space in the studio that is often times human in scale. Outside of the studio, it neither imposes nor dominates the individual, meeting and being met in a state of parity. By allowing the materiality of the media to remain recognizable and apparent on the surface, a recording of the embodied creating of the work reveals the material temporality of a lived experience.
Solo* and Shared Exhibitions
2026, Simple Present Forms, Alma, Chicago, Illinois
2026, Undifferentiated,* Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred, New York
2024, Maximizing Minimalism, Governors State University, University Park, Illinois
2023, Raw and Fragile, ALMA, Chicago, Illinois
2020, Murmuration,* Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, California
2018, Earth Bound, Hofheimer Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2017, SERIOUS/play, Matthew Rachman Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2015, I Am Here,* Lillstreet Annex Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2013, Expanding,* Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, Illinois
2013, Oreiller,* Manchester University, Manchester, Indiana
2012, Oreiller,* Brainforest Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Group Exhibitions
2026, Fault Lines, Sculpture Space NYC, Queens, New York
2025, Present, Robert Turner Gallery, Alfred University, Alfred, New York
2024, Self | Portraits, CSI Project Space, Chicago, Illinois
2024, Bridgeport Art Center Annual Art Competition, Bridgeport Art Center, Chicago, Illinois
2024, Down There, Womanmade Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2023, 6th Midwest Open, Womanmade Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2022, Chicago Sculpture International Biennial, The Koehnline Museum, Des Plaines, Illinois
2022, Little, But Bold, 3D4D Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2022, We Are Close in Distance, USC, Roski Graduate Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2022, Mindscapes, 3D4D Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2022, In Good Company, Mana Contemporary, Chicago, Illinois
2021, ARTIFACT, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2021, Art in the Time of Corona, Dab Art Co., Los Angeles, California
2019, Geometry, Site:Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York
2018, The Goodwin Collection, Illinois State Museum, Lockport, Illinois
2018, 22nd San Angelo National Ceramic Competition, San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, Texas
2018, The State of Clay, 10th Biennial, Lexington Art and Crafts Society, Lexington, Massachusetts
2018, At the Surface, Foundry Art Centre, St. Charles, Missouri
2017, Taking Shape, Studio Oh!, Chicago, Illinois
2016, Not Just Another Pretty Face, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, Illinois
2016, Connect, Hyde Park Art Festival, Chicago, Illinois
2016, Peace on Earth, Matthew Rachman Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2014, Evanston + Vicinity Biennial, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, Illinois
2014, Art from the Heartland, Indianapolis Art Center, Indianapolis, Indiana
2014, From the Earth, Tubac Center of the Arts, Tubac, Arizona
2014, 27th Annual Women’s Works, Northwest Area Arts Council, Woodstock, Illinois
2014, Bridgeport Art Center Annual Art Competition, Bridgeport Art Center, Chicago, Illinois
2013, Not Just Another Pretty Face, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, Illinois
2012, 42nd Annual East Pilsen Artists’ Open House, Chicago Art Department, Chicago, Illinois
Residencies
2021, Cynthia Morelli Studio Artist-Driven Residency (supported by the Rasmuson Foundation Fellowship Program), Homer, Alaska
2019, STARworks Ceramics, Star, North Carolina
2012, Pyrenean Pottery Workshop, Prats-de-Mollo-la-Preste, France
Grants
2022, IACA (Illinois Arts Council Agency), Individual Artist Project Support
2020, IACA (Illinois Arts Council Agency), Individual Artist Project Support
2016, DCASE (Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events) Professional Development Grant
Education
2026, Alfred University, New York College of Ceramics, MFA Candidate. 1995, Boston University, School of Visual Arts, Boston, Massachusetts BFA, Major: Graphic Design. Minor: Sculpture & Art History.
Representation
Artist Talks
Bunnell Street Arts Center, Artist Talk, 11.08.22
Cuesta College, Artist Talk, Presentation, Part 1, 03.07.19
Cuesta College, Artist Talk, Presentation, Part 2, 03.07.19
Cuesta College, Artist Talk, Audience Q&A, Part 1, 03.07.19
Cuesta College, Artist Talk, Audience Q&A, Part 2, 03.07.19
News Coverage
Reviews
https://the189.com/sculpture/in-homage-to-form-stoneware-sculpture-by-amanda-gentry/
http://chicagofineart.blogspot.com/2018/08/
http://www.chicagogallerynews.com/news/2016/11/eye-for-collectors-a-new-monthly-series
http://www.louiseandmaurice.com/single-post/2015/11/06/REVIEW-I-am-here-Work-by-Amanda-Gentry