Amy Barker-Wilson

I trained in Europe as a textile designer, and designed works for industry and for one-of-a-kind woven and painted pieces that hang in public and private buildings in Europe and the US. Years ago, I turned to painting as a primary medium and studied with renown painters. Recently, I began focusing on non-objective work on canvas, paper and silk.

I enjoy painting as a reflection of an unfolding process of discovery, a metaphor of spiritual perception and awareness, of spirit witnessing, participating and unfolding in the medium of life. Beginning by letting go of preconceived ideas of what should happen, I “dive deep” into the center of the visual field the canvas holds, and feel the way step by step of the journey through the seeming chaos and change and beyond … as formlessness gives way to coherence, to interconnectness and to a complex play of color, plane and line, recorded upon the visually unified field. I have become interested in the total presence of the painting rather than specific images, and the qualities of light and space which are result of deconstructed images.

Amy Barker-Wilson currently lives and works in Bethesda, MD. She holds a BA from Boston University, psychology and art; MFA (equiv.) Stuttgart Kunst- Akademie and California College of Arts and Crafts, Design & Textile Design; MA .ed. George Washington University, art education with emphasis in Art Therapy; Journeyman certification in Weaving and Textile arts, European Textile Guild. She studied painting with Patricia Friend and William Calfee of American University at the Kensington Workshop; and with Walt Bartman and Helen Corning at the Yellow Barn, Glen Echo, MD.

She received a two-year grant from the German government to work as an independent textile artist/designer, working on commission and contributing to gallery shows. She also received grants to oversee installations of fiber production/ateliers in Germany, Denmark and Switzerland, and was given multiple awards for textile designs and hand executed pieces which have shown at the Textile Museum in Washington, DC ,as well as the Stuttgart Kunsthalle, Germany and State Library in Stuttgart and Sindelfingen, Germany, and in other public buildings.

Amy has taught art and crafts in private high schools in the Washington area for many years, before that in Boston, MA and Sindelfingen and Tubingen, Germany. She has taught at art schools including the River Gallery School in Brattleboro, VT, and the Glen Echo Arts Center, as well as The Yellow Barn in MD. She also has worked extensively as art therapist/teacher in various settings, and worked with adolescents in school settings, as well as shelter and hospital settings, including Children's Hospital, Washington, DC.

In November 2010, Amy was selected as an artist-in-residence at the Glen Echo Stone Tower at the Yellow Barn, in Glen Echo, MD. Her work was included in the "American Art Collector, National Review," published by Alcove Books, in the 2011-2012, 2010-2011, and 2009 editions, and in 2008 was included in the Northeast edition. Her work also was included in Washington Project for the Arts, Corcoran Gallery, "Selected Work 2010" and "Selected Works 2008." Articles about her work appeared in the "Gallery Art Acquisitor" 2009 magazine, and the "Washington Gazette," July 2007.

Exhibitions include:

• Outloud Painters, Glenview Mansion Art Gallery, July 3-29, 2011, Rockville, MD
• Two-person Show, Montgomery County Public Library, June 1 - 30, 2011, Bethesda, MD
• Outloud Painters, River Road Unitarian Church, June 4 - June 30, 2011, Bethesda, MD
• Solo Show, Alchemical Transformations, Foundry Gallery, May 5 - 30, 2010, Washington, DC
• Solo Show, Luminous Metaphors: Metaphysical Landscapes, Daystar Gallery, Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament, Jan. 13 - Feb. 12, 2010, Chevy Chase MD
• Art Is A Gift, 50 Artists, Touchstone Gallery and Foundry Gallery, Dec. 10 - 12, 2009 at Go Mama Go, Washington, DC
• Foundry Gallery Annual Holiday Show, Dec. 2 - 27, 2009, Washington, DC
• HUSH! Foundry Gallery's Second Annual Auction Benefit, Sept. 2009, Washington, DC Transluminescent Metaphors, Amsterdam-Whitney Gallery, New York City, July 10 - August 4, 2009
• Small Mysteries, Gallery 3, Foundry Gallery, June 3-28, 2009, Washington, DC
• The Outloud Painters, Sandy Spring Museum, Sandy Spring, MD, April 1 - May 31, 2009
• December Members' Show, Foundry Gallery, Dec. 3-28, 2008, Washington, DC
• August Members' Show, Foundry Gallery, July 30 to Aug. 31, 2008, Washington, DC
• The Outloud Painters, BlackRock Center for the Arts, Germantown, MD, May 7–June 6, 2008
• Recent Works, Solo Show, Foundry Gallery, March 5 - Apr. 3, 2008, Washington, DC
• 17th Annual Strathmore Membership Juried Exhibition, Dec. 5 - 30, 2008, Mansion at Strathmore, N. Bethesda, MD
• Three Women Abstract Show, Landow Gallery, Landon School, Sept. 14 - Oct. 12, 2007, Bethesda, MD
• New Works, Members of Foundry Gallery, Aug. 1 - Sept. 2, 2007, Washington, DC
• All-Media Membership Show, The Art League, Torpedo Factory, July 2007, Alexandria, VA
• Small Works, Gallery 3, Foundry Gallery, July 2 - 29, 2007
• All-Media Membership Show, The Art League, Torpedo Factory, April 3 - May 4, 2007, Alexandria, VA, Honorable Mention for "Swing"
• New Members' Show, Foundry Gallery, Jan. 31 - Feb. 28, 2007, Washington, DC
• Visualize Peace: Works by Gallery members, Foundry Gallery, Dec.1, 2006 - Jan. 3, 2007, Washington, DC
• Paintings of the Bahamas, Group Show, Yellow Barn Gallery at Glen Echo Park, Sept. 2 - 4. 2006, Glen Echo, MD
• Red, Group Show, Gallery members, Foundry Gallery, July 2006, Washington, DC