In Amy CaseyIn his meticulous acrylic paintings, houses and buildings on the main street swirl through the air amid rubble, teeter in enormous piles in the sea, or balance precariously on gigantic clusters of fungi. Our perception is tested: are the houses really small or is their environment very large? That derailment is at the core of her practice, which confronts our current, often overwhelming information age and its politics, war, the climate crisis, population displacement and more. “It’s difficult to process the world and the constant flow of information about it without feeling powerless and paralyzed,” says the artist. “Sometimes life feels like an endless scream.”
In her paintings, which are often as small as six inches wide but can range in size up to several feet, Casey depicts real houses and buildings that she has observed primarily around her home in Cleveland. They often catapult through space and lose pieces of themselves, reflecting what Casey describes as witnessing a world “that seems to become a stranger every day.” She adds, “As I look at a world on the edge, painting it literally falling apart allows me to process life and function on a daily basis,” she says. “Imagining cities in worse scenarios serves as recognition and hope that there is still time to change; things are not that bad.”
Recently, Casey has begun to focus on nature, integrating houses into surreal scenes full of delicate ink caps or overgrown tree stumps. Even here the emphasis is on decline, but she pulls a more hopeful cord to reveal a sense of blossoming and renewal as well. These small paintings visit homes that have broken away from their previous turmoil and found themselves in a new resting place, albeit not without challenges. After all, how do you live on top of an oyster mushroom?
“We have all experienced our own version of the world turned upside down, trying to find our footing and start over, feeling small, alone and overwhelmed by unsettling changes,” the artist said in a statement. “These paintings meditate on these feelings and what it is like to live in this overwhelming time and place. These are not gnome or fairy houses in a magical forest. They are the remaining remnants of a world on the brink, but they are just like nature, just like us: nothing if not resilient.”
Casey’s work is currently on display in a group exhibition in Gallery of brass instruments through June 6 in Portland and Zg gallery in Chicago. She is also preparing for a show in Maria Neil art project in September in Cleveland. Follow updates about Casey’s Instagram.
