DOCTORATE DEGREE
AWARDED
2018
University of New South Wales
Sydney, Australia
ARTIST TALK
Tamworth Regional Gallery, Tamworth Australia
January 10, 2019
Set against the backdrop of the Tamworth Regional Gallery in Australia, award-winning artist and Archibald finalist Amber Boardman and sitter Michael Reid will share their perspectives on the Archibald Prize and the art world more generally, speaking openly about their influences and creative needs; their joys and their passion for advancing creative endeavour – especially in regional areas.
Photo credit: Jonathan Hillyer
ARTIST TO ARTIST WORKSHOPS
Tamworth Regional Gallery, Tamworth Australia
January 06, 2019
Exhibitions have often felt one-sided to me so I wanted to devise a way of having a more meaningful dialog within a community surrounding an exhibition. I want to know what others are working on, and I also want to know how my ideas are being received. With this in mind I will conduct Artist-to-Artist Workshops during the Archibald Prize Exhibition at Tamworth Regional Gallery. I will be engaging in one-on-one dialogues with artists and offer my experience as a fellow artist and university lecturer. I started engaging in these workshops during an exhibition in America last year as a way of rethinking what it means to show work. I can offer artists assistance with grant proposals and artist statements, as well as informal chats about art and what it means to be an artist. The workshops are suitable for anyone from emerging to established artists.
ART MAZE MAG
Autumn Issue 9
September 30, 2018
Amber Boardman paints the endless desire to improve the body as promoted by Internet and social media culture through makeup, hair dye and spray tans —the transformative ‘paint’ women use in everyday life. These consequences of this desire for self-improvement—bodily alteration and transformations of the self—may be interpreted as creating a tragicomic effect that unfolds through the devices of narrative and character based on the social media feed.
REVIEW OF BEYOND REASON EXHIBITION
ARTS HUB, Gina Fairley
December 09, 2018
Have a shot of caffeine before you head to QUT's new exhibition, Beyond Reason, as it is a high voltage, overloaded experience that will set your brain alight. It would be an understatement to describe this as a dense or congested exhibition. While it includes just 26 artists, each is represented through several artworks, many of which contain multiple elements or are hung salon-style using up every inch of gallery real estate.
BEYOND REASON CATALOGUE AVAILABLE
Essay by Kevin Wilson
November 16, 2018
Beyond Reason exudes whimsy, improvisation, spontaneity, humour, gesture and intuition whilst exploring ideas of cultural identity, popular culture, and sexuality. Artists include: Karen Napaljarri Barnes, Karen Black, Amber Boardman, Sally Bourke, Angela Brennan, Matthew Clarke, Aleks Danko, Beth Ebatarinja, DC Style Fylez, Rosie Deacon, Simone Eisler, Troy Emery, Heath Franco, Hannah Gartside, Minka Gillian, Kyoko Imazu, Trudy Inkamala, Laith McGregor, Amanda Marburg, Sharon Muir, Benita Multa, Louise Paramor, Tom Polo, Zoe Porter, Dulcie Sharpe, David Spooner, Jacqui Stockdale, The Ryan Sisters, and Michael Vale.
ART ALMANAC
By Eleanor Zeichner
September 10, 2018
@jadefad: a social media feed in paint' explores the transformative qualities of paint in an interwoven narrative that plays out both in the gallery and on Instagram. The series is buoyed with an absurdist sense of humour, mirrored by Boardman's confident and gestural brushwork.
ARTIST PROFILE MAGAZINE
Issue 40
May 07, 2018
My work is heavily influenced by my background as an American child of the 1980s who grew up on cartoons and animations like The Far Side and Looney Toons. My training is in painting, but for years I was sequencing my paintings into animated films and public art installations.
BURNAWAY MAGAZINE
Personal Essay
October 25, 2017
In September, before my exhibition opening at Sandler Hudson, I held three artist-to-artist workshops for the purpose of reconnecting with Atlanta’s arts community by engaging in dialogue on each participant’s practice, and rethinking what it means to have an exhibition. I met with eighteen artists one on one and nine artists over dinner. These events were generously hosted by Flux Projects, MOCA GA and Sandler Hudson.
REVIEW OF REGROWTH
By Laura Relyea
August 27, 2017
A day or two after my phone interview with Amber Boardman last week, I found myself hurriedly walking out the door of my apartment, doomed to be 10 minutes late for my next meeting, barefaced and wearing a wrinkled shirt. In the rearview on my way into the city, I noticed an absurd smeared pattern on my eyelid — nothing like some poorly applied mascara to bring you back to earth. Wiping it off while laughing at myself a bit and averting my eyes back to the road, I thought of Boardman’s upcoming exhibit at Sandler Hudson, Regrowth (September 8–October 14). It occurred to me that what makes Boardman’s works so wonderfully relatable is the immediate intimacy she establishes with her humor.
REVIEW OF REGROWTH
By Jerry Cullum
October 15, 2017
An exquisitely thought-out mix of attraction and repulsion, the paintings and works on paper satirize a whole range of present-day types and conditions, although the satire is, on an obscure level, mixed with compassion for the human condition. These people are wretched messes, but so are we. The disheveled, bearded quasi-hipster of Can’t Even, the distraught square-jawed figure expressing dismay in Election Day, or the unconvincing display of confidence in Realtor Optimism are all figures or situations we have encountered. They and their similarly discomfited companions are rendered with slashes of paint that go beyond the ordinary definition of “loose.”
REVIEW OF REGROWTH
By E.C. Flamming
October 12, 2017
The title of Amber Boardman’s exhibition “Regrowth” at Sandler Hudson, her first in Atlanta in six years (she now lives in Sydney), refers to something inevitable: the appearance of natural hair color at the roots as seen in the titular painting Regrowth. Almost every painting in the exhibition showcases in bold brush strokes all the things women do to “improve” their physical appearance, from dying their hair to plastic surgery. The pursuit of perfection, like the fight against the persistent passing of time as evidenced in Middle Aged Alter Ego, is futile. However, “Regrowth” has other meanings for Boardman. Aside from everyday vanities and embarrassments, the many paintings in this exhibition tell a deeper story. Lurking behind the fruitless attempts at conformity lie self-acceptance, humor, and human empathy.
JUXTAPOZ MAGAZINE
By Kristin Farr
December 09, 2016
Amber Boardman works intuitively to paint feelings and nearly abstracted portraits of oddballs. Inevitably influenced by the pop cultural zeitgeist, she explores beauty ideals, intimacy, and the most prominent peculiarity of contemporary life: awkwardness. She recently made a triumphant return to the easel after many years in animation, and Dr. Boardman is now a painting outlaw on her way to a PhD in cartoons. She was born back East and now lives Down Under.