Amy Cousins
Contact Information
Gallery
Please contact artist for purchases, commissions, etc.
Installation & Sculpture
Artist's Biography
Amy Cousins is an artist from Houston, Texas who currently lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She holds an MFA in Printmaking from the Tyler School of Art and a BFA in Printmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her work has been exhibited nationally at venues including Vox Populi and Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, Lawrence Arts Center in Lawrence, KS, Visual Arts Center at Boise State University, University Galleries at Illinois State University, Peephole Cinema in San Francisco; and IS Projects in Fort Lauderdale. Cousins was a long term visiting artist at Illinois State University in 2018 and a resident at ACRE Residency in 2019.
Artist's Statement
I create sculptures, prints, and installations that explore my relationship to a poorly documented queer past. I look to archives and material culture to locate revolutionary potential within tightly policed narratives and objects, and explore what it means to look at this potential through contemporary lenses of intersectional feminism and queer ecology. I am especially inspired by histories of activism and of land projects, in the queer ingenuity, playfulness, and world building that has historically been wielded to combat oppression, the way that queer people practice celebration and expression as a means of survival.
I work with textures like faux fur, pleather, papier-mâché as a way to honor legacies of thrift store, self-fashioned queer decadence as well as the historic role of craft within social movements. The forms in my work also conjure the domestic through their references to furniture and objects of comfort, as I question whose comfort is valued by the mainstream and what a comfortable world for queer identities might look like. Printmaking maps its way onto my work as dance party fliers, separatist journals, and other ephemera are reimagined in new contexts. My work takes its queues from our revolutionary past to imagine a future where flexible identities and messy feelings are celebrated as natural and necessary.
Selected Exhibitions
Solo
2020
Among Us, Practice Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2019
A Shimmer & A Shout, Lawrence Arts Center, Laurence, KS
2017
You Will Never Have the Comfort of Our Silence Again, University Galleries at Illinois State, Normal, IL
2016
Not In Our House, Temple Contemporary, Philadelphia, PA
MFA Thesis Exhibition
2015
Patterns and Prints: Recent Work by Amy Cousins, IS Projects, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Group
2020
Bottom of the 9th, Pinch-Hitter Projects, Philadelphia, PA
Curator: Heather Raquel Phillips
Queer Threads, American University, Washington, DC
Curator: John Chaich
Cancelled due to COVID-19
2020 MAPC Member’s Juried Exhibition, CVA Galleries, Kent State University, Kent, OH
Juror: Imin Yeh
Emerging Artist Exhibition, Chautauqua Visual Art Galleries, Chautauqua, NY
Queer Ecology Hanky Project, Irma Freeman Center for Imagination, Pittsburgh, PA
2019
Your Plus-One, Mount Airy Contemporary, Philadelphia, PA
4x6 Show, traveling exhibition at Press North Printmakers, Townsville, North Queensland, AU,
Firestation Print Studio Armadale, Melbourne, Victoria, AU, Bluegrass Printmakers, Lexington,
KY, and Second State Press, Philadelphia, PA
Queer Craft, Morrison Gallery at University of Minnesota Morris, Morris, MN
Curator: Andrew Stansbury
2018
Lip-Sync Parade, FJORD Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Curator: Doah Lee
Annual Member Print Exchange, Second State Press, Philadelphia, PA
Collaborative Explorations, Milner Library, Illinois State University, Normal IL
Marginalia, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY
Curator: Henry Gepfer
2018 Screenprint Biennial, Opalka Gallery, Albany, NY
Juror: Nathan Meltz
What We Talk About When We Talk About Print, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY
Exhibition of exchange portfolio organized by Nick Satinover and Sarah Smelser
Best of the Worst, Practice Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
9th International Printmaking Douro Biennial 2018, Museu do Douro, Douro, Portugal
Curator: Nuno Canelas
Second State Press: Prints We Made, The University of the Arts Printmaking Gallery, Philadelphia,
PA
2017
Lucky 7, Second State Press, Philadelphia, PA
Graphic Mimicry, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Curator: Amze Emmons
Part of Print Think Conference
Aberrant Methods, Baker Gallery at West Chester University, West Chester, PA
Curator: Lindsay Deifik
Queer Art of Resistance, The Fine Art Galleries at Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center, Allentown, PA
Curator: Deborah Rabinsky
Crafting Resistance, Visual Arts Center at Boise State, Boise, ID
Curator: Kirsten Furlong
Wig-Wag, Peephole Cinema, San Francisco, CA
2016
Swing State, Little Berlin, Philadelphia, PA
Curator: Rebekah Flake
By the Campfire, Studio Two Three, Richmond, VA
Beyond the Norm: International Juried Print Exhibition, Illinois State University Gallery, Normal, IL
Juror: Susan Tallman, Art in Print
1,560,297, Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia, PA
Curators: Anthony Romero and Abigail Satinsky
Part of Unlisted Art Fair
Ink, Press, Repeat, Ben Shahn Gallery, William Paterson University, Paterson NJ
Juror: Phil Sanders, PS Marlowe
5 into 1, Moore College of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Juror: Philadelphia Sculptors
Don’t Take This The Wrong Way, Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia, PA
Show #31 Online Exhibition, Field Projects Gallery, New York, NY Curator: Jesse David Penridge, James Cohan Gallery
RBTL (Read Between the Lines): College Art Association’s MFA Annual Regional Exhibition, Katzen Art Center, American University, Washington, DC
2015
Insight/Lines, Stella Elkins Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Fifth Annual Members Print Exchange, Second State Press, Philadelphia, PA
2014
Graphic Coordinates, White Box Gallery at Griffith University, Queensland College of Art, Brisbane, Australia
Works by Amy Cousins, J. Pascoe, and Elizabeth Coffey Williams, William Way Community Art Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Curator: Eli VandenBerg
Fourth Annual Members Print Exchange, Second State Press, Philadelphia, PA
2013
Thanksgiving Dinner, AUX at Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA
Crossing into the Cinematic, Impact 8, Dundee, Scotland
Third Annual Members Print Exchange, Second State Press, Philadelphia, PA
Dinner and a Movie, The Fairgrounds, Philadelphia, PA
Formality: On Loan, Area 405, Baltimore, MD
Juror: Cara Ober
Transfer: Annual Juried Printmaking Exhibition, Middendorf Gallery, Baltimore, MD
Juror: Amy Eva Raehse of Goya Girl Press
Excellence in Printmaking, Washington Printmaker’s Gallery, Silver Spring, MD
Juror: R.L. Tillman
2012
Repeat Notions, Takoma Park Community Center, Takoma Park, MD
Vestige: Annual Juried Printmaking Exhbition, Fox 2 Gallery, Baltimore, MD
Juror: Ann Shafer, assistant curator at Baltimore Museum of Art
Moving Right Along, The Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD
Part of the Travelers installation at Penn station as part of the museum’s exhibit
Artist's Bibliography
2020
"In Dialogue," GrizzlyGrizzly, August-September
Web
2018
Huff Hunter, Bea. "Critic’s Pick: Lip-Sync Parade," Art Forum, December 17, 2018
Sorrentino, Lea Devon. "The Reality of Rejection," Bad at Sports, August 9, 2018
Nash, Indiana. "On exhibit: Screen printing in Opalka spotlight," The Daily Gazette, December 6, 2018
2017
"Playful Art Delivers Powerful Message," WGLT, Sep 8 2017
Radio and web
2016
"New of the Print World: Selected New Editions," Art in Print, May-June 2016. 51
Residencies and Visiting Artist Lectures
2020
“Queer Epehemera, Etc: Encounters in the Archive,” Co-Chair, panel presented at MAPC 2020 virtual symposium
Craft & Activism, panel moderator, Arcadia University, Montgomery County, PA
Canceled due to COVID-19
Artist’s lecture and studio visits with Queer Archives class (remotely), Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
2019
ACRE Residency, Steuben, WI
Artist's Talk, Lawrence Arts Center, Lawrence, KS
MICA Printmaking Alumni Panel, panelist, MICA, Baltimore, MD
2018
Printmaker’s Round Table, Screenprint Biennial 2018 Symposium, Sage Colleges, Albany, NY
Long Term Visiting Artist, Illinois State University, Normal, IL
Artist’s Lecture, Race, Identity, and Experience in American Art class, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA
2017
Visiting Artist (Print Collaboration, Artist’s Talk, and Graduate Studio Visits), Normal Editions Workshop at Illinois State University, Normal, IL
2016
Artist’s Lecture and Workshop, Advanced Screen Printing Class, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Artist’s Lecture and Workshop, Beginning Printmaking Class, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
2015
Artist-in-Residence, Two Birds One Stone Editions, Baltimore, MD
Show and Tell Guest Artist, Second State Press, Philadelphia, PA
2013 - 2014
FOB Holder, Second State Press, Philadelphia, PA
2013
College and Post Graduate Apprentice, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA
Awards and Grants
2021
InLiquid, Philadelphia, PA
Wind Fellowship, Recipient
2017
Genderfail
Award for Affective Disjuncture of Being In Straight Time
2016
Beyond the Norm: An International Juried Print Exhibition, University Galleries of Illinois State University, Normal, IL
Curator's Choice Award
2014 - 2016
Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
University Fellowship
2011 - 2012
Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
Carrie Macedonia '03 Memorial Scholarship
2010 - 2011
Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
Liberal Arts (Minors) Departmental Recognition Award
2009 - 2003
Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
Dean's List
Fanny B. Thalheimer Scholarship
Academic Excellence Award
Trustee Award
Talent Grant
Curatorial Projects
2017
Bedside Manner, with Kelly Kuykendall, the Annex at Little Berlin, Philadelphia, PA
Exhibition and zine
2016
Invisibile Ink, Rush Process Festival, Aurura Picture Show, Houston, TX
Traveling program with OOF Collective
2015
Reverberations, Stella Elkins Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2014
Lyrical Hysterical, with OOF Collective, Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia, PA
Membership
2018 - 2019
Soapbox Community Printshop, Philadelphia, PA
Mid-American Print Council
2013 - 2019
Second State Press, Philadelphia, PA
2013 - 2017
OOF Animation Collective
Education
2016
Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
MFA, Printmaking
2013
Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
BFA, Printmaking with Creative Writing Minor
Summa cum laude
