Bio

Since I was a young child, I’ve been drawn to images of the intimate. Moving around a lot meant I developed an awareness of my own subjectivity from an early age, and learned to see myself in relation to what surrounded me. My interest in the most familiar space- that of the body- took me deep into artistic traditions of realism. In recent years, I’ve become interested in the objects and spaces these figures inhabit, and what I can learn from looking at my own looking. 

In moments of stillness, light, shape and textures become a world unto themselves. In my work, these everyday domestic scenes often contain an underlying unease. These paintings inhabit a world that is stripped of noise and activity, almost claustrophobic. I’m interested in the blurred line between quietness that suggests rest and stillness that evokes desperation. Is my hiding place a sanctuary or a prison? Can the way I see myself really be trusted?

–> mari.elaine.lamp@gmail.com

Education

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, MFA, 2017

The School of Representational Art, Chicago, 2011-2012 (Atelier course of study in drawing/painting)

Houghton College, NY: B.A. in Art and Writing, 2007

Exhibition History                                              

Solo Exhibitions

2021 Fixed Gaze, Fine Arts Center, Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, NJ

2019 Current Sea, Stanley Brown Jewelist, Chicago

2014   It Seems Violent To Me, MPSTN Gallery, Chicago

Group Exhibitions

2020 Trade Ya, Alumni Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

2019 Contemporary Juried Exhibition, 215/610 Contemporary, Delaware County Community College

2018 The Poetics of Re-Presentation, The Woodmere Museum Annual 78th Juried Exhibition, Philadelphia

2017 Playbook, On Stellar Rays, New York, NY, curated by Josephine Halvorson

2017 Apparitions, Fjord Collective, Philadelphia, PA

2017 Annual Student Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia PA

2017 Wet Paint, Workhouse Arts Center, Lorton, VA curated by Harry Cooper, National Gallery of Art

2016 Happiness, Liberty, Life, Gallery 128, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia

2016 RBTL College Art Association’s MFA Annual Regional Exhibition, American University,

Washington DC

2016 Bodies, Stella Elkins Tyler Gallery, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA

2015 It’s The Thought That Counts, Gallery 128, PAFA, Philadelphia,

2014 Group Format, Uptown Arts Center, Chicago

2014 A City to Wear, Research House for Asian Art, Chicago

2013 Memory, Lacuna Artists Lofts, Chicago

2013 Benefit Auction, Autumn Space Gallery, Chicago

Teaching

Holy Family University, Philadelphia, Drawing Instructor,  Fall 2017 – Fall 2021 

Affiliations

Member, AUTOMAT Collective, Philadelphia, PA, 2018 – present

Residencies

Scholarship Awardee, Chautauqua School of Art, Chautauqua NY, 2016

Awards

Eagles and Angels Award, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Collections

John and Susan Horseman Collection, St. Louis, MO

Publications

“Back to the future in politics and art” by Stacy Friedman. Broad Street Review. Published July 25, 2016.

mari.elaine.lamp@gmail.com