Cooper Hewitt says...
Amelia Bauer was born and raised in Santa Fe by two creative parents; her mother was a potter and her father was an architect. Bauer took to artistic practice from a young age as she remembers having an easel that she painted on by the age of three. When she graduated high school Bauer was made a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts, a program which recognizes and celebrates the country’s top graduating seniors, before moving to New York where she obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts at The Cooper Union in 2001. Although photography has been her primary medium, she frequently engages with sculpture, drawing, or decorative arts. Her art is rooted in a contemporary exploration of American culture, life and history ranging from staged landscape photography, lacework and pillows that represent violence displayed in popular culture, or more recently, engaging with the history of occultism and alternative religions in the US through self-portraiture. One of the key themes that permeates Bauer’s work is the inherent tension that exists between the chaos of the natural world and the ways in which humans have always tried to organize it. Her art has garnered a significant level of attention both within the US and abroad with several solo exhibitions and many group exhibitions at venues including SFMoMA, Walker Art Center, Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Aperture Foundation and the Milan International Art Fair. She is the executive director of NOISE FOR NOW, a non-profit organization based in Santa Fe that aims to connect artists and entertainers as well as offer financial support to grassroots organizations.
