This Alabama Artist Approaches The Human Form In A Novel Way

For figurative artist Amy Pleasant, the human form is more than a source of beauty and movement; it’s a language unto itself. Though many artists have depicted the human physique, Pleasant’s abstract approach—focusing on isolated parts like hands, feet, elbows and shoulders—feels fresh and distinct.

Rendered using a purposefully concise palette, these simplified poses permeate every medium the Birmingham, Alabama-based talent tackles—from ink and gouache “drawings” on stained watercolor paper, to thinned-out oil paintings on canvas, to site-specific installations, such as one at the Birmingham Museum of Art that runs through November 17. Her next group show opens at Omaha, Nebraska’s Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in January, and she enjoys representation at Laney Contemporary in Savannah and Whitespace in Atlanta.

Though Pleasant explores sculpture using clay and metal, drawing remains the cornerstone of her creative practice. Ideation typically begins with quickly sketching a dozen or so images on paper, then drawing and redrawing gestures that interest her. “Repetition intrigues me, because it’s impossible to create the same thing twice,” she notes.

Pleasant’s method of fragmenting the body into interrelated symbols is “a lot like an alphabet,” with her method of combining gestures being “similar to writing,” she shares. “When you put pen to paper, your hand is keeping up with your thoughts in real time. I’m trying to achieve that same stream of consciousness.”

Painting translates these spontaneous concepts into a more deliberate, intentional practice. Even preparing her canvases is a multistep process; the artist can spend weeks perfecting layered backgrounds for her characters to inhabit. Once the painting begins, “It’s important for me to maintain the sense of my hand,” Pleasant says. “Artists often use tape to keep lines straight, but I prefer the imperfections; they make the surface feel alive, like there’s a vibration to it.”

To keep creativity flowing, Pleasant regularly migrates among three studios—a space shared with her fellow-artist husband at their personal home; a dedicated studio in Birmingham’s Avondale neighborhood; and a communal area at Makebhm for her “messier, dustier” work in clay.

The artist’s first forays into sculpture actually began more than a decade ago, as an unexpected offshoot of her two-dimensional work. She started cutting out her painted paper shapes, folding them in half, then standing them upright. “I realized folding is the simplest way to translate a flat shape into three dimensions,” she notes. “Most sculpture is about volume, but mine is about line and shape; everything depends on your vantage point.”

Following experiments with figures in clay, her first major sculptural commission—an 8-by-10-foot bronze for Emory University in Atlanta—opened the door for more work in metal and, soon, a new favored material: laser-cut, powder-coated aluminum. “Seeing my sculptures together with the paintings in my studio adds to the fuller experience of my work,” the artist says. After all, “Each of them is part of the conversation.”