BIOGRAPHY
Amanda van Gils is a contemporary Melbourne based painter whose imagery generates from a romantic sensibility of landscape painting and people’s relationship to the landscape.
Technically proficient van Gils’s works capture precious moments; the magic of evening, flight, play and escape. Her most recent work has moved further into the realm of play. While the brooding romantic sensibility of earlier work is still apparent this is often overridden by a pure sense of fun. Recalling childhood, the images hover on the threshold of reality and imagination where play time allows anything to be possible.
Using family members as models and well travelled locations for the landscape, the works have a personal resonance for the artist, however images are transformed through the use of colour and atmosphere that locates these moments in an ambiguous space and allow viewers to place their own interpretation on the works.
Amanda lives and works in Melbourne with husband, fellow artist Vito Manfredi.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
- 2005 Play Time - Rex-Livingston Art Dealer, Sydney, NSW
- 2005 New Work - Montserrat Gallery, New York, NYC, USA
- 2004 Drifters - Stella Dimadis Galleries, Collingwood, Vic.
- 2003 Twilight Travels - Tilt Contemporary Art, Ferntree Gully, Vic.
- 2003 Irresistible Detours - Pantechnicon Gallery, Daylesford, Vic.
- 2003 Mistakenly - Metropolis Gallery, St Kilda, Vic.
- 2002 subvisible - red gallery, North Fitzroy, Vic.
- 2002 Cars Like Us - LaTrobe Street Gallery, Melbourne, Vic.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
- 2005 2005 Sommerwende International Arts Festival - GALLERY twenty-four/ARTLINE: Berlin Cultural Centre, Berlin, Germany
- 2005 Synthesis - Tilt Contemporary Art, Ferntree Gully, Vic.
- 2004 Lasting Impressions - Eltham Wiregrass Gallery, Eltham, Vic.
- 2004 Wyndham City Contemporary Art Prize - Wyndham Community Cultural Centre, Werribee, Vic.
- 2004 Group Retrospective - Tilt Contemporary Art, Ferntree Gully, Vic.
- 2003 The Hutchins Art Prize, 2003 - The Long Gallery, Salamanca Place, Hobart, Tasmania
- 2003 City of Banyule Works on Paper Art Award, 2003 - Ivanhoe Receptions, Ivanhoe, Vic.
- 2003 Darebin La Trobe Acquisitive Art Prize 2003 - Bundoora Homestead Arts Centre, Bundoora, Vic.
- 2003 Nillumbik Prize 2003 - Nillumbik Shire, Eltham, Vic.
- 2003 Red Group Show - red gallery, North Fitzroy, Vic.
- 2003 Wyndham City Contemporary Art Prize - Wyndham Community Cultural Centre, Werribee, Vic.
- 2003 The Smorgon Steel Contemporary Art Prize - Williamstown Festival, Williamstown, Vic.