Ambera Wellmann’s paintings redefine the pictorial vocabulary surrounding erotic performativity by queering figures through abstract space. Applying paint in complex and manifold layers, Wellmann sculpts carnal scenes of malleable bodies that soften and cascade in and out of color blocked backgrounds—arms, fingers, knees, toes and hair meld with objects, animals and fields of color, creating an amorphous unity that decenters the gaze. Wellmann’s paintings follow an internal visual logic and produce cycles that have neither beginning nor end. Like a memory or a dream, bodies in Wellmann’s paintings maneuver in shifting states of flux and transfiguration.
Recent exhibitions include solo shows at New Museum Triennial, New York; MAC Belfast, United Kingdom; Pond Society, Shanghai; Company Gallery, New York; Krau- pa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin; MoCO Montpellier; Lulu, Mexico City and Projet Pangée, Montreal as well as participation in the 16th Istanbul Biennale and group shows at The Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH; MoMA Warsaw; Australian Center for Con- temporary Art, Melbourne; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; KAI 10 / Museum Marta Herford, Düsseldorf / Herford and Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Her work has been acquired by The Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH and the X Museum, Beijing. Upcom- ing exhibition at ICA Boston.
Headshot image by Marquale Ashley.