Painting by Amy Banker
Photo © Tracey Gudwin
One of the most enigmatic aspects of the creative process is the question of where the images spring from, from which experiences, from which depths of our unconscious, to what extent the artist has seen and experienced in person as a creator of new visual worlds. An artist can be called such if he or she is brave enough to open the door of chance and sew new meanings into our existence. This is the case with Amy Cohen Banker, who for many years now has made painting her preferred field of expression, translating on to canvas autobiographical gestures and emotions. Her work touches on the chaos of emotions, to the anxiety of the things of life, and it does so without fear and with extreme simplicity.
What is more, on looking at the works of Amy Cohen Banker we think and sense elements which move imperceptibly, suspended elements and contrasts, symbolic references to universes known by our memory. In all this internal and secret density, nonetheless exposed without veils, the materiality and its disappearance take shape. This is the arena where Amy Cohen Banker measures herself every time, it is the physical place where to give vent to one's emotions and to attribute a meaning to them, a poetic and sensitive vessel being both precious and necessary ...
Stefania Carrozzini, 2009