Yolanda del Amo
Archipelago
Oct 6 - 29, 2022
Through my long-term photographic project Archipelago (2004-2014), I address the tension between our inner and exterior realities and how we live with ourselves and others. Using friends or family as sitters, I draw inspiration from real life. I use my observations of them and their environment as raw material and add a theatrical dimension through my directorial approach. The resulting tableaus are a fusion of fiction and reality, exposing the social constructs that frame individuals, such as class, family and gender.
Archipelago is an exploration of interpersonal connections and disconnections and the dichotomy between the human longing for closeness and the need for individuality. The relationship between the people in the images defines itself through the setting, which conversely becomes a psychological extension of their characters. Using silence as a platform, these photographs operate as a collection of ‘islands,’ separated by the loneliness of each one and linked by the intimate bond of belonging to the same world.
Artist Talk: Date and Time TBD
Yolanda del Amo (Spanish/American, b. 1967) is a Spanish-born, New York-based artist who works in photography. She questions how social constructs such as class, gender and family influence community, interpersonal psychology, and identity. Her work looks at individuals through a sociological and psychological lens, exploring how we live and connect with ourselves and others, and how we shape the world around us.
Solo exhibitions have been held at the Centro Cultural de la Torriente Brau in Havana, Hudson Franklin Gallery in New York City, and Light Work in Syracuse, New York, among others. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at venues such as Julie Saul Gallery in New York City, the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover and the National Portrait Gallery in London.
She has been the recipient of multiple awards, such as a commendation at the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition organized by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC and the second prize at the Salón Nacional de Artes Visuales in Buenos Aires. Institutions and Foundations that have supported her work through production grants include the Jerome Foundation, the John Anson Kittredge Fund and the Spanish Ministry of Culture.
She has been a resident artist at the Terra Foundation for American Art in Giverny, France, the Spanish Academy in Rome, Light Work in Syracuse, New York, and the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. She is currently an Associate Professor for Photography and Digital Media at Ramapo College of New Jersey.