Amy Bessone, Playbill: Night Life, 2022; Hand-Embellished, Signed, and Numbered Limited Edition Print

Bessone’s multi-disciplinary practice challenges cultural representation of the female form through her reinterpretations of classical forms and varied pastiche of art historical references. Using the body as a framework, the artist exposes the fetishism of the female body both within the arts and throughout society—subverting traditional notions of figuration and form with fearless engagement. Playbill: Night Life displays a series of windows into her world examined through a diversity of painting techniques, color, and line. A winding composition of Bessone’s characters framed in bright washes against the stark, flat black unveils a loose narrative form. Notions of identity are explored through tonal and figural variation rendered through the diversity of the vignettes peeking through each of these windows. Whether enclosed in Grecian arches or dual-toned landscape, Bessone’s classical figures displace meaning and purpose in these remixed settings. The artist has created unique figur