Amy Bessone

b. 1970

Born in New York, New York, 1970; Lives and works in Los Angeles, California

My work does not pledge allegiance to a dominance of sincerity over politics, or intellect over sensuality or emotion. It rather creates a haven for these things to coexist, to be intertwined. — Amy Bessone, 2019

Artwork

Exhibitions

09.11–10.30.2021
Amy's World
Gallery 12.26

Amy Bessone

06.27–08.09.2019
Group Show
Salon 94 Bowery

Paint, Porcelain And Pulp

03.03–04.13.2019
Reclamation Island
The Pit, LA

Amy Bessone

07.14–09.08.2018
Pussy, King Of Pirates
Maccarone, LA

Amy Bessone

01.09–03.05.2016
In The Century of Women
Gavlak Gallery

Amy Bessone

07.07–08.26.2015
Group Show
Freeman Alley

Torsos & Buckets

01.31–05.04.2014
Amy Bessone
Kunsthall Stavanger

Amy Bessone

05.07–06.14.2013
In the Green Room
Salon 94 Bowery

Amy Bessone

04.10–05.23.2008
With Friends Like These
Freeman Alley

Amy Bessone

Biography

Woman sits on a chair in front of a blue and red painting holding a sculpture of a large hand with the middle finger up.

Photo by Géraldine Gourbe

Amy Bessone


Amy Bessone (b. 1970) is a Los Angeles-based visual artist whose practice across media challenges cultural representations of the female body, incorporating various art historical and kitsch references from Greco-Roman nudes to dime-store porcelain pinups. Subverting notions of female figuration and the male gaze, Bessone’s work addresses the dichotomies of high and low, gender and form. Using the physical body as a literal and conceptual framework, the artist exposes the fetishism of objects, both in the art world and as feminist theory.

Bessone was recently the subject of a solo exhibition, Amy’s World, at 12.26 in Dallas (TX) in 2021. Other recent solo exhibitions include Playlet, curated by Elaine Levy, with Oleksandrssssssss, Brussels (BE) in 2021; Reclamation Island at The Pit, Los Angeles (CA) in 2019; and In the Century of Women at Gavlak Gallery, Los Angeles (CA) in 2016.

The artist is currently included in BOZO FAMILY HOEDOWN at M+B, Los Angeles (CA) through February. Recent group exhibitions include Cracked, curated by Leonie Mir, at Tristan Hoare, London (UK) in 2021; Tiger in a Tropical Storm at Louise Alexander Gallery, Sardinia (IT) in 2021; All of Them Witches at Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles (CA) in 2020; Riders of the Red Horse at The Pit, Los Angeles (CA) in 2020; Yarrow Pickers at Harper’s Apartment, New York (NY) in 2020; and NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection, which traveled from the Rubell Family Collection, Miami (FL) to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. in 2016.

Bessone’s work is included in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (CA); the Rubell Family Collection, Miami (FL); the Saatchi Collection, London (UK); and Frac Bretagne, Chateaugiron (FR).

CV

Press

05.11.2020
Amy Bessone
Lindsay Preston Zappas

Carla Magazine

10.01.2019
Amy Bessone

Swim Magazine

04.08.2019
Misplaced Empathy
William J. Simmons

BOMB Magazine

02.11.2016
Women, Divorce and Art That Turns Shame Into Celebration at Gavlak Gallery
Sharon Mizota

LA Times