08 amanda chwelos

Title: Poor Timing

Dimensions: 20in x 24in

Year of Completion: 2019

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Estimated Value: $800

Courtesy of the Artist

Poor Timing ​depicts an overly-aware and awkward figure seated on a stool. Using tropes in figurative painting, the work explores isolated discomfort manifesting itself in the body. Chwelos applies a humorous approach to figure painting by playing with materiality in the pursuit of understanding the figure as an abstract form. Through the process of making the work, she grapples with the formal and physical practice of painting in a similar way to conceptually grappling with the unease within the work’s content. Consequently, characters become a vehicle for understanding what is not outwardly visible but is still at the site of the body.

Amanda Chwelos is an artist living in Edmonton, Alberta. She received her diploma in Fine Art from MacEwan University in 2017 and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art in Art and Design from the University of Alberta in 2019. In 2019, she was awarded the McLuhan House Artist Studio Residency. Her work has been subject to many group exhibitions including ​Nice to Meet You​ in FAB Gallery at the University of Alberta and most recently ​Yard Work is Hard Work​ at McLuhan House. Chwelos’ current work explores figuration and contemporary malaise through a practice based in painting.