Oils

“Contemplation of the natural world echoes throughout the refined, meditative works of Amy Lowry. In the understated elegance of her paintings on rice paper and canvas one sees the synthesis of her cultural and artistic experiences absorbed from living in China for several years. She follows in a long tradition of Western artists who have looked to the East for a means of expression that is spiritually profound, yet which distills the visual vocabulary to its most essential elements.

This formal distillation is particularly evocative in Lowry’s exaggerated and simplified interpretations of plants and insects that are graphic pictographs of bold shapes and saturated colors placed against muted backgrounds. Isolating our attention on enlarged, singular images of striking simplicity, she compels us to view the microscopic and organic as possessing unusual mystical powers. As a result of viewing Lowry’s works, we listen to the hum of the mosquito in a different way. Perhaps it is not a est, but instead a messenger bearing wisdom. Through her body of images we are made receptive to such potential visits.”

John Brunetti, June 2000 – Chicago Arts Critics Association