Gabrielle Amodeo

"During an interview on Brian Crump’s show Nights, on Radio New Zealand, I heard that karaoke translated to ‘empty orchestra’. I thought the phrase was beautiful; the starkness of ‘empty’ forms a demanding opposition to the rich voluptuousness of ‘orchestra’. To me the phrase speaks eloquently about processes of information lost/information gained; about the absent but remembered lyrics imperfectly filled by the performer, and the peculiar, almost estranged, relationship between the fixed recording and the temporal iteration of the moment.

In my practice, I’m interested in why things are familiar and how the familiar can be construed differently. Working on the basis of form following idea, I use multiple mediums. Modelled on and modified from familiar sources and objects, the artwork enables a proliferation of meaning to gather around the source-object, creating an uncertainty and instability of sense. Each work follows a different methodology, logic or form, using some manner of disruption to set the meaning of the source-object at play.

I see my work as being like listening to karaoke at that moment the relationship between song and iteration breaks down. It is a personal, altered translation of something familiar, where meaning becomes twisted in action and enunciation, causing an irruption that unravels the known.

Gabrielle Amodeo is a conceptual artist and sometimes writer living and working in Wellington, New Zealand. She is the 2015 recipient of the Parkin Prize, has shown at several of New Zealand’s premier public galleries, including Artspace (Auckland); Dunedin Public Art Gallery (Dunedin); Papakura Art Gallery (Auckland); and The Dowse Art Museum (Wellington) and in 2016 completed the Late Winter Intensive Residency at The Banff Centre, Canada. Her practice was enthusiastically reviewed in the cover feature of Art New Zealand’s 2014/15 summer edition, along with two others, as artists to watch." - GA

Selected Exhibitions
2018
Blind Carbon Copy: An Open Love Letter | Curated by Ioana Gordon-Smith, Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, Auckland (solo)
I’m thinking of an exploded essay. | RM Gallery and Project Space, Auckland (solo)

2017
Two Hundred and Thirty Words for Dishonesty | Artist pages for the first three issues of Physics Room’s upcoming journal HAMSTER
Passed ,           Repeating last : | Five Walls, Melbourne (group)

2016
An Open Love Letter | Residency, Late-Winter Intensive, The Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada
Suburban Dreams | Curated by Sian Van Dyk, The Dowse Art Museum, Wellington (group)
Oscar: With a sinister hoist, the semaphore flag | North Projects, Christchurch (solo)
Break Me/Harder | Curated by Noelia Portela (as part of Yours To Tell, curated by Catherine Hunt), RM, Auckland (group)
Slow and mournfully; slow and sad; slow and solemnly | Mason's Screen, Wellington (solo)
Landscapes Reconstructed | The Whyte Museum, Banff, Alberta, Canada (group)
Empty Orchestra / Rock Garden | Papakura Art Gallery, Auckland (two-person with Yolunda Hickman)
Assay / Essay: Artist-Run in Aotearoa New Zealand | Contributing Editor on publication with Enjoy Public Art Gallery, edition of 100.  With support from Chartwell Trust and Enjoy Public Art Gallery.

2015   
“Even a long human life only adds up to about 650,000 hours” | Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin (solo)
Parkin Drawing Prize | New Zealand Fine Arts Academy Gallery, Wellington (winner)
Something Felt, Something Shared | Curated by Emma Ng, Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington (group)

2014
If you do start making cheese, I recommend a Farmhouse Cheddar | Collaborative project: PILOT and Ramp Gallery, Hamilton (group)
Spring Issue | Curated by Karl Bayly and Priscilla McIntosh, The Free Parking Space, Hamilton (group)

2013   
Keeping Secrets and Stealing Things | Mezzanine, Artspace, Auckland (solo)
An Unkindness of Ravens | Traveled to Pelorus Trust Mediagallery, Wellington (solo)
National Contemporary Art Award | Waikato Museum, Hamilton (finalist)
Put Up Your Dukes! Part Two | Publication Launch and Exhibition, Pearce Gallery, Auckland (two-person)
Duas Cidades | Co-curator with Fernanda Barreto, RM, Auckland and Veredas-SP, São Paulo (group)
Put Up Your Dukes!  | With Jill Sorensen, Blue Oyster Project Space, Dunedin (two-person)

2012   
[TOAD] | (In conjunction with An Unkindness of Ravens) Viewfinder, Auckland (solo)
An Unkindness of Ravens | Film Archive Exhibition Space, Auckland (solo)
Spurious Facts and Apocryphal Tales | Collaborative publication with Christina Read

Awards and Festivals
2015    
Parkin Drawing Prize | Winner

2014    
Spark International Festival | Exhibition and Panel Participant

2013
National Contemporary Art Awards | Finalist