AMANDA ROWAN
PHOTOGRAPHER
Amanda Rowan’s provocative still life and self-portrait images depict playful and sensual moments, eliciting humor through an exploration of the power and vulnerability of womanhood. Rowan is both curator and subject in each richly styled vignette depicting moments of mysticism and seduction. Her work explores domestic labor and gender using a mix of visual iconography, including food advertising, vintage pinup, and religious deities.
During her fellowship in 2021, Amanda had the opportunity to engage with the Acequia Madre House collection to create a body of work that will be featured in a solo show opening May 20, 2022. [Photography by Gabriella Marks]
She immersed herself in the Acequia Madre House and in the lives of the women who inhabited it – Eva Scott Fényes, Leonora S.M. Curtin, and Leonora F.C. Paloheimo. She examined, interpreted, and took inspiration from the extensive archive of personal artifacts of the three women – who left behind an extraordinary record of their times in letters, journals, publications, albums, photographs, art, and artifacts.
The result of the project is a collection of work – including recreated elaborate dinner parties from archival recipe books – which explores the surrealist narrative of domestic labor and themes of property and independence linked to the trappings of class and gender.
The Acequia Madre House is re-opening its doors with this exciting new exhibition reflecting our evolution from a historic house museum to a space for contemporary art that engages with history. We hope you will join us!
