Out of art
As self-taught artist Amanda Wall continues to find her footing, her work has already caught the attention of collectors and curators.
Amanda Wall ( @amanda_wall ) knows what you're thinking. She would think so too if she was in your shoes. “I have my career as an artist thanks to Instagram, I admit that is the reason why people were first introduced to my paintings,” says a monotonous Wall, as she bangs a La Croix surrounded by pieces for her second exhibition at the Almine gallery. Rech. "I know what they see, it's a difficult transition to make." The former beauty exec continues to operate with faltering, struggling with the word "artist," despite appearing on the list alongside James Turrell, Richard Prince, Julian Schnabel and Kenny Scharf. "It's a big word, it's small and it has the whole history of art behind it," he shrugged. “I still got it when people ask me what I do for a living.” It's a refreshing and candid response for an artist being asked for help by the market. And such an admission is factually great, an unexpected revelation that he laughs at when I tell him about it.
Wall's arrival in the art world at age 30 was marred by his lack of access. Growing up in white-trash America , life consisted of going to and from school, going on Tumblr first thing in the morning, disappearing during obligatory family outings, and having a campfire in the woods. An aesthetically minded girl caught between anger and laziness. Finding a way out of that situation conditioned Wall's decision-making. But art never crossed his mind, simply because it never crossed his path. “Art didn't exist where I grew up, we didn't even have books at home,” he explains. Instead, couture images in magazines and on the web filled her days, and later, modeling became a path that appeared out of nowhere. “They were colors and shapes. That was all I knew about what I wanted,” he says. While attending college in Seattle, majoring in design, Wall was discovered and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in front of the camera.
“I still got it when people ask me what I do for a living.”
After a brief stint in the world of modeling, Wall devoted himself to casting and consulting work, and eventually found himself at the service of Rémy Cointreau. When the French beauty brand sent her the schematic for a new line of hair products, she was unimpressed and took it upon herself to redesign the product. “I was his target audience,” he explains. When the company received his feedback , he was offered to lead the visual direction for millennial hair care brand R+Co. "I didn't want to design shampoo bottles," says Wall. “Someone just said, 'hey, do this and we'll give you money.' It was easy". He helped establish R+Co as a competitor to superpower Bumble & Bumble and the brand became a cult hit, pioneering street casting , indie set design, and the “recognizable and accessible” mentality that now pervades all brands. contemporary beauty. However, over time it lost its shine. “It wasn't a challenge, I was doing everything for someone else. He wasn't following a voice. I was making things look cute for other people. It didn't make sense, it was radically boring." When her boyfriend at the time, Olivier Zahm, editor-in-chief of Purple magazine, saw her paintings, he prompted her to consider an alternative path. But with no formal training, Wall acknowledges that “I had no idea what I was doing. I just don't know what I don't know." Still, the idea caught on.
Wall is currently 37 years old and lives in Los Angeles, his path as an “artist” began with a canvas in Michael . He entered a hobby zone, worked on one painting a month, and lost his mind. “It was a process where I hit my head against the wall, I drowned, where every time I painted something well, I would later review it and think it was complete garbage,” he laughs. "There is no certainty in my process." After much trial and error, his work finally debuted on social media. Then came the inquiries. “There was a guy in Los Angeles who had a cabin in his backyard. He told me that he would do a small exhibition, but at first I thought it sounded totally vague. What was the person and place in question? The exhibition sold out, the MOCA directors were there, and the momentum reached full speed. “People were buying the first paintings he had done. I couldn't understand why," says Wall.
A year and a half later, this situation continues to haunt her. Although self-taught artists are not very common, having never intended to have become one, Wall's impostor syndrome leads her to be profoundly cautious. “I don't have a title that shows I'm legit,” she explains. “I wish I knew everything there is to know. I still have some anxiety about being self-taught, about entering this world, at this time and at this age.” Although he admits that his own disjointed nature of doubt is part of his practice. "I think this tension of energy is the spirit of the moment: the schizophrenia of it, the feeling that we have completely collapsed." At this moment the artist alludes to the intention behind her works, something that is kept in the heart. Unlike his colleagues who dwell on their lengthy explanations on the spot, Wall has taken hours to share.
There is a clear dichotomy in the artist: the player and the introvert. Each of these identities plays a key role in your success. “I come from a place that didn't want to go into the art world, but when I realized that a lot of it was a game, I was even more drawn to it.” Mindful of the patterns that permeate our interpersonal relationships, Wall's performance on the web is based on years of business insight. She is a provocateur who digitally hides behind her bangs. At best, one will be able to get a glimpse of what his next works will be, but his thoughts behind them will not be known, which creates a mystery in a world oversaturated with ephemeral reflections. This is contrary to the intimacy of the portraits he paints, which are often exceptionally sexual and decadent. Each painting gives off vibes of red meat, red wine, and dim chandeliers, the tug-of-war of intimacy keeping curators and collectors on their toes. It is a piece that expresses his feelings about a society where "everything is a game and life is a simulation."
However, regarding the subject matter of his works, collectors may be fascinated to see the new version of Wall. In his upcoming Paris+ exhibition, obvious allusions to sexuality continue to dot the show, but the sensory attention is more palpable. Regarding the subject, “for me they are all the same, I am playing with something alive that has a vibration, a feeling and a movement. It's more of a sound than a word, even a smell,” he explains as incense burns in his deliberately dark Los Angeles studio. Each piece is irritating, leaning toward faux blue cherries, fantasies, and plastic flowers. Artificiality is important to Wall and refers to his theory of the game of life. As for the process, "I have no idea what my paintings will be like when I start them, it's all intuition," he admits. Experiment actively hoping you won't "mess it up." I use a lot of layers in my paintings, so when I sometimes make decisions, I just hope I haven't messed up something I initially liked,” she smiles, pointing to the candles of a large-scale figurative portrait before leaning back, actively surveying her studio. The faces in close-up that are released are a direct evolution of his previous work. Somehow, being sadder and more dissociated, they lean into their new emotional phase: "I'm becoming a nihilist," she admits.
Wall has to leave her studio in two more weeks, so she can get the store ready due to increased demand, a ceremonial choice that further distances her from her beginnings. In the meantime, we sit down, put away the wine for one last health, and talk about dating (she's not interested). She is relaxed in her natural habitat. “I've had so many different lives before this one. It seems impossible to go back," he smiles. "Maybe this is my soul mate."
