22 and Cheetah 1983

Emma Amos made 22 and Cheetah with acrylic and fabric, and right away, you notice it’s not just paint on a flat surface. It’s got this whole tactile thing going on, which gets you thinking about artmaking as a process, right? What grabs me here is how Amos uses the fabric, the weave, as part of the image itself. The way the figure overlaps the pattern changes the rhythm of the piece. The cheetah, low down, looks to be emerging from the bottom of the tapestry, rather than simply painted on. It almost feels like you could reach out and touch the texture, feel the different materials. It makes you wonder about the history of each piece of material, how it has been touched, handled and used. Amos, like Howard Hodgkin, uses the frame as an integral part of the work. She challenges our expectations around traditional artmaking, leaving us to reflect on painting as an ongoing conversation. It's not about answers, but about keeping the dialogue open.