Amy Sillman
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Biography
Born 1955 in Detroit, MI
Lives and works in New York, NY
Amy Sillman has become one of the most influential figures of 21st century painting, as she moves across media seamlessly, integrating elements such as collage, drawing and printmaking into her practice. Sillman considers drawing to be the point of departure for all her work. She also explores gestural modes of production in her inkjet-printed and silkscreened canvases, zines and more recently in her animated iPhone videos.
A retrospective exhibition of works by Amy Sillman is currently on view at Kunstmuseum Bern (2024), travelling to Ludwig Forum, Aachen in 2025. A comprehensive selection of paintings on paper was part of The Milk of Dreams, curated by Cecilia Alemani at the 59th Biennale di Venezia. Sillman has held solo exhibitions at major international institutions, most recently at the Arts Club of Chicago (2019); The Camden Arts Center, London (2018) and Kunsthaus Bregenz (2015). Her work was included in group shows at the Museum Brandhorst, Munich (2023); Lenbachhaus, Munich (2018); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2016); Tate Modern, London (2015) and MoMA, New York (2015), among others. Works by the artist were on view in the 2014 Whitney Biennial. In addition, she recently curated an Artist’s Choice show at the MoMA titled The Shape of Shape which opened in 2019.
Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the MoMA, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Art Institute of Chicago; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Museum Brandhorst, Munich, and many more.
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More recently, I started thinking about shape. I’ve never read a book on shape. I’ve read books on gesture; I’ve read tons of books on color, surface, field, ground, representation, abstraction. But I’ve never read a book on what a shape is. I like shapes. So I was making all of these round ones. And then I thought, “I guess they’re people.”
– Amy Sillman
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