Isabella Amram Turkish-Venezuelan, b. 1995
Scarlet Fugue, 2025
oil, acrylic, and oil stick on canvas
120 × 110 cm
Isabella Amram’s practice is grounded in the tradition of Gestural Abstraction, where paint becomes an extension of the body and each mark captures a visceral, physical encounter with the canvas....
Isabella Amram’s practice is grounded in the tradition of Gestural Abstraction, where paint becomes an extension of the body and each mark captures a visceral, physical encounter with the canvas. Working on multiple pieces simultaneously, Amram builds her paintings through a slow, layered process, allowing energetic gestures to accumulate over time. Her bodily approach to the pictorial surface evokes the physicality of performance, yet remains a private act of communion between artist and artwork, free from the gaze of an audience.
"I'm interested in how the unseen dimensions of life can manifest on a surface through materiality. I explore the mystery of life, what cannot immediately be comprehended by the human eye, but perhaps can be experienced and addressed through art." This inquiry lies at the heart of Amram's work. While her compositions are abstract, they are scaffolded by her close observation of the natural world - branches, roots, patterns of erosion - recorded and photographed during daily walks. These organic forms guide her mark-making without confining it to direct representation, allowing her gestural script, suggestive of language yet unreadable, to evoke a sense of the ineffable.
Amram’s chromatic palette is deeply premeditated. Though her gestures are intuitive and expressive, her colours are carefully mixed in advance, informed by both colour theory and the chromatic balance she observes in untamed landscapes. Vivid bursts - magentas, yellows, blues - emerge in dynamic dialogue with quieter passages of soft greys and beiges, creating a harmonious equilibrium. Beginning with washes of acrylic to build luminous bases, Amram then layers oil paint to develop depth and texture. Each painting is constructed through this slow, deliberate interplay between structure and spontaneity.
Amram’s practice embodies a tension between control and release, intuition and precision, materiality and mystery. Her paintings reclaim the primacy of the body and its movement; her gestures, though untranslatable, carry an emotional charge - an echo of language that bypasses intellect and speaks directly to the senses.
"I'm interested in how the unseen dimensions of life can manifest on a surface through materiality. I explore the mystery of life, what cannot immediately be comprehended by the human eye, but perhaps can be experienced and addressed through art." This inquiry lies at the heart of Amram's work. While her compositions are abstract, they are scaffolded by her close observation of the natural world - branches, roots, patterns of erosion - recorded and photographed during daily walks. These organic forms guide her mark-making without confining it to direct representation, allowing her gestural script, suggestive of language yet unreadable, to evoke a sense of the ineffable.
Amram’s chromatic palette is deeply premeditated. Though her gestures are intuitive and expressive, her colours are carefully mixed in advance, informed by both colour theory and the chromatic balance she observes in untamed landscapes. Vivid bursts - magentas, yellows, blues - emerge in dynamic dialogue with quieter passages of soft greys and beiges, creating a harmonious equilibrium. Beginning with washes of acrylic to build luminous bases, Amram then layers oil paint to develop depth and texture. Each painting is constructed through this slow, deliberate interplay between structure and spontaneity.
Amram’s practice embodies a tension between control and release, intuition and precision, materiality and mystery. Her paintings reclaim the primacy of the body and its movement; her gestures, though untranslatable, carry an emotional charge - an echo of language that bypasses intellect and speaks directly to the senses.
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