Biography
Amara Eke was born in 1998 in State College, PA. In 2021 she received her BFA in Drawing and Painting from Penn State University and additionally, the Creative Achievement Award for the School of Arts and Architecture in the same year. Eke received her MFA in Drawing and Painting from the University of Washington in 2024.
Eke is focused on illustrating themes drawing on the utilization of one's own potential, interconnectedness with the universe, love, conspiracy, time and space from Amara’s own unique perspective.
Eke has also been lucky enough to have work shown in downtown Seattle’s Pioneer Square art walk before graduating in 2023; in addition to multiple group shows all over the University of Washington since 2022.
Her recent exhibitions and awards in 2024 in Seattle include: the UW MFA Thesis Show at Railspur Gallery, ‘Future Brite’ at Europa Gallery, Gallery 110’s ‘Emerging Artist Exhibition’ where she was a recipient of the core member scholarship, Shift Gallery’s 2024 Diversity Grant recipient and the recipient of UW’s ‘HUB Director’s Art Award’ where her piece ‘Arms Race’ will be in their permanent collection. Amara is committed to pushing art past its limits to encapsulate a self-contained world in a bright, vibrant, large-scale way in hopes to bring a moment of joy to any passing viewer. She currently lives and works in Seattle, WA.
Artist Statement
After finishing my MFA at the University of Washington in studio art, my practice has led me to intensify my already bright color palette and intentionally artificial materiality to capture and consume viewers’ attention. With striking aesthetics I strive to maintain the sacred goal of compelling an audience to linger and explore, giving my paintings more than a passing glance.
I draw inspiration from late Byzantine mosaics, allegorical paintings from the Renaissance, the visionary artwork by Hilma af Klint, and the musings of Lisa Frank. I aspire to create similar impacts of awe, rumination, and awakening through my colorful, playful, cartoon-like stylization.
On every scale, I strive to create a visual language in addition to a maker’s mark with motifs, patterns, and subjects. Creating a unique stylization has been one of my main goals as an artist. I believe it is the purest testament and the truest dedication to the contribution to the canon of art and art history to crystallize my individuality among the millions of artworks existing as we know it and be identified by a unique visual cadence. I am familiarized with the importance of composition, visual rhythm, iconography, spectacle, and characterization in a way that propels viewers beyond the work and into imaginative realms.
My current body of work seeks to connect humanity by telling a story where escapism, divination, and inter-dimensionality create a prophecy: Love, at the epicenter, is the protagonist who will save the universe. I use artificial, plastic looking color to contrast the divine, paying homage to the new gods that have emerged under the vindictive and compelling theocracy of capitalist and systemic structures within modern society.
The delicious artificiality of acrylic paint, paired with my internal desire to create an all-inclusive, self-contained world where everyone can joyfully coexist, manifests itself into something that can become real and, therefore, is more than just a dream. Amidst real-world chaos, madness, and confusion, my ambition is to create beams of joy through my art to offset the mundane and operate as a catalyst to envision a brighter, kinder, loving, and, most of all, delightful future.
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