AMEL CHAMANDY

Montreal born Amel has been an artist since the age of 15. She studied Studio Art, Art history and photography in the 80’s, at Concordia University. Thereafter, she studied Fine Arts and art restoration briefly in Italy.  Amel returned back to Montreal to continue her studies at the Saidye Bronfman Fine Arts School to hone her techniques in studio expression.  Her expositions have been exclusively regional and are now diversifying into a more global market.

The artist looks at her subject in a way that transcends color so that she can arrive at its essence and usurp the ordinary for the extraordinary. The subjects are varied and can be found in elements both of nature and the man-made world that surrounds her.  She seeks to challenge people’s predisposition of the subject through the color that she uses.

Her most recent emphasis is on photography using scale, light and fragmentation to produce her result. Nature has been a focal point of her recent series and a way to project the dynamic aspects of shape and form through unconventional spectrum. The artist’s latest work is featured in the exhibit "Scene Scape, Through The Artist’s Eyes", a retrospective connecting her past to her present in a selection of black and white film taken in 1998. 

All the still life images of the exhibit are “one of a kind” and the result of traditional film photography combined with contemporary technique. As such, not only is there an original theme and emphasis associated with the unaltered photograph, but also layered and cached “sub themes” dealing with how, in our “humanness”, we perceive and process familiar surroundings in the face of our experiences, influences and compounded technology. 

Amel poetically transforms the simple and familiar object of a camera’s lens into the complex result of mind and perspective. In some ways the photograph may take on a deconstructed character which the artist feels mirrors her daily life. This series of photographs represent pieces of this great puzzle called LIFE and how we define, which is as unique as each indivudual’s experience. “I feel the dynamic qualities of LIFE with all of its colour and constant shift, vibration, interruption and distortion.  It is this that I intend to convey to my audience through the images of Scene Scape” says Amel. The “work up” of each photograph is very much her way of challenging her own relationship with her surroundings and memories.

Added to these images is a video titled Through The Artist’s Eyes that loops through a segment of scenes reflecting the voluntary and involuntary eye movements made and recorded by the artist as she looks at undefined objects and events.

Amel Chamandy’s work has been collected by both private and corporate collectors around the world.

EDUCATION

1993 – 2001          Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts, photography, drawing  and painting courses

1996 – 1997          Concordia University, Major in Art History, Minor in Studio Arts

1990                      Florence Academy of Art, drawing and painting apprenticeship

                              École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris, drawing apprenticeship

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2013-14                Gallery NuEdge Fine Arts Ltd., St. James, Barbados
                             “Through her Lens” Dec 12, 2013-January 13, 2014

2010                    Galerie NuEdge Fine Arts International L.P.,S.E.C. Montreal,Scene Scape, Through the Artist’s Eyes, Photo Exhibit, May 7 - September 18

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

-2017                    Gallery NuEdge Fine Arts Ltd., St. James, Barbados

                            Galerie NuEdge Fine Arts International, L.P., S.E.C., Montreal, Canada

ART FAIRS

2011                      Red Dot Art Fair, NY, Art Exhibition, March 3-6, New York, NY

                              Accepted to:

                              Art Monaco, MC, Art Exhibition, March 31- April 3, Monaco                                         

2010                     Red Dot Art Fair, Art Exhibition, December 1-5 Scene Scape, Through the Artist’s Eyes, Photo Exhibit, Miami, FL

PHILANTHROPIC ACTIVITIES

2009                      Business for the Arts, Art Scene Montreal, Founding Patron  

2009                      Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Board of Trustees, Trustee

2007 – 2009         McGill University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Advisory Board

2007 – 2009         Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Foundation, Trustee

2006 – 2009         Friends of the Museum Advisory Committee, Member

ART COMPETITIONS

2013                       ONE LIFE, International Photo Competition, USA

DAVE BOWN PROJECTS, 6th Semi Annual Art Competition, USA                                           

DVORAK, International Sculpture Competition, Czech Republic

OXFORD MATHEMATICAL INSTITUTE, Sculpture Competition, UK

OCALA Sculpture Competition, Florida, USA Sculpture “Marie & Jean” selected for the outdoor exhibit, Tuscawilla Park, Ocala

“Tequila Sunrise” selected for the “5ème concours International de l'Art Contemporain GemlucArt”, MC, Monaco