Amy Sillman (American, b. 1955) is an influential Contemporary painter, focusing on the materiality of the medium with both humor and conceptual investigation. Known for working in both large-scale, gestural abstraction and cartoonish figuration, Sillman famously announced her “break-up” with abstraction on BOMBlog in 2009, stating “basically I kicked [abstraction] out of my studio this summer, and afterwards I felt really good. I had this amazing fling, don’t tell anyone, but I had this fling with this face, and I don’t know, that was the straw that tipped the iceberg and I just went with it.” She has since worked prolifically in both representation and abstraction, frequently at the same time. In addition to her painting practice, Sillman also produces zines, drawings, and iPad animations.

Born in Detroit, MI, Sillman studied at the School of Visual Arts for her BFA in 1979 and later at Bard College for her MFA in 1998, and cites Philip Guston and Willem de Kooning as early and enduring influences in her work. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Louise Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and the Elaine de Kooning Memorial Fellowship, among others. Sillman has exhibited widely, including with Sikkema Jenkins & Co in New York, Captain-Petzel in Berlin, and Thomas Dane in London. Her first museum survey, one lump or two, opened in 2013 at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, and went on to travel to both the Aspen Museum of Art and the Hessel Museum of Art. Sillman’s work can be found in the permanent collections of numerous institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Whitney Museum in New York, the Museum of Fine Art Boston, the Brooklyn Museum, and many more.