Interview: Amelia Carley
Amelia Carley’s work engages with the interpretation of memories within a landscape and fictitious sites. Born and raised in Colorado, Carley received a BFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an MFA from the Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design at Georgia State University. She has participated in several Artist-in-Resident programs, including Vermont Studio Center and Atlantic Center for the Arts. Carley has exhibited at such venues as SOMArts (San Francisco, CA), Southampton Art Center (Southampton, NY), Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (Salt Lake City, UT), Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (Boulder, CO), Day & Night Projects (Atlanta, GA), Galleries of Contemporary Art at University of Colorado (Colorado Springs, CO), Photographic Arts Center (Denver, CO), Camayhus Gallery (Atlanta, GA), Pratt Institute (Brooklyn, NY), Main Window Dumbo (Brooklyn, NY), SPRING/BREAK Art Fair (New York, NY), and Paradice Palase (Brooklyn, NY). Amelia Carley currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Within her work, Carley constructs a visual representation of an artificial place, a study of an invented land. This fabricated space serves as a surrogate environment through which she can explore concerns around loss and decay.
Read our interview with Amelia below!
Installation View of Solo Show at Otra Vox in Lost Angeles, May 2022
PP: Walk us through a typical day in your studio or generally through your process to make new work.
AC: Since becoming a parent, I have much less studio time. After daycare drop-off and a second cup of coffee, I dive into the studio (on the days when I can). I’ve become extremely efficient at using an hour here or there and truly relish the rare, longer studio days I can manage to fit in.
When starting a new piece, I usually have several possible compositions in mind that I've been developing simultaneously. Since I work from photographic images of models I’ve constructed, I often spend hours meticulously lighting, arranging, documenting, editing, and sifting through hundreds of photographs before selecting the compositions that most appeal to me. I choose the strongest compositions from these photos before planning out a painting. Recently, I’ve been making small oil-on-paper studies as references for larger paintings based on these photographs these have helped transition to larger canvases after ideas have been worked through on a smaller scale.
Uncertain Darkness (Glass Bottle Beach), Oil on canvas, 36 x 30 x 1.5 inches, 2021
Fuchsia Burst (Glass Bottle Beach), Oil on canvas, 14 x 11 x 1.75 inches, 2023
PP: What motivates you to make art?
AC: I grew up traveling through the American Southwest, surrounded by the epic and surreal desert landscapes that shaped my early experiences. Now living elsewhere, I reflect on those memories alongside the deep history of the land, tracing back centuries and millennia before human presence. Several years ago, I began reconstructing versions of these landscapes, and over time, my series evolved to include glass from Glass Bottle Beach, a rehabilitated landfill in Dead Horse Bay, Brooklyn. I create small dioramas, which serve as models for my fictitious landscape paintings.
The environmental aspect is central to my work, as I consider the long-term evolution of the earth, both before and long after human existence. My most recent works incorporate an orange cloud, reminiscent of the wildfire haze that enveloped New York City in the summer of 2023, considerations of the forces changing our environment. Through this work, I explore the intersection of personal memory and lived experience within a broader environmental and ecological context. By crafting imaginary landscapes rooted in my early memories, I aim to ignite the viewer's imagination while engaging with real-world issues.
PP: What is one goal you are aiming to achieve this year for your art practice?
AC: I plan to create new models, shifting away from the glass and sand I’ve focused on for several years and incorporating plastic into my models and subsequent paintings. The way plastic has become part of our earth’s composition and our biology is both fascinating and disturbing. I want to explore this in a new body of work, creating models that address our anthropogenic reality as beings now partially composed of plastic. Of course, another goal would be to exhibit these new works as a series in a fantastic exhibition space.
Artist’s studio
Orange Haze Fissure, Oil on panel, 30 x 24 x 1.5 inches, 2024
PP: Is community something you value in your practice? Why or why not? & What are ways you support other artists?
AC: The importance of community and supporting other artists go hand-in-hand in my life. I have many artist friends in New York City and elsewhere that I make a significant effort to support through studio visit exchanges, showing up to shows and life events. We support each other. I find it essential to be involved with other artists to learn and grow together.
PP: What challenges have you faced as an artist and how do you overcome them?
AC: Like many artists, I have to juggle other work to keep my studio practice afloat. While sales do happen, they’re not consistent or reliable enough to live on. I’ve been supporting myself by teaching at Pratt Institute and, more recently, through art consulting, placing works in affordable housing. Living in New York City is both a gift and a struggle, a feeling that has only intensified since becoming a parent. Balancing multiple jobs and parenthood has been the biggest challenge of my artistic career. I'm still working through the logistics daily, but my love for making art is so strong that I can’t—and won’t—stop making art.
To learn more about Amelia’s work, see her Instagram and Website