Amy Cutler is an internationally acclaimed artist best known for her enigmatic depictions of women performing strange, cryptic tasks: carrying goats on their backs in Above the Fjord, sewing tigers in Tiger Mending, dancing with chairs on their heads in Dinner Party. Rendered simply, though with exquisite detail, Cutler’s style is reminiscent of European folk art; however, the narratives are left unexplained and the white backgrounds of her drawings provide little context or clues to the meanings. The fantasy world she creates is sometimes humorous and other times ominous.

Cutler is known for exquisitely detailed narrative works of art created through a pastiche of personal memories, political observations, and cultural insights. One-person exhibitions of works by the artist have taken place at SITE Santa Fe; the Indianapolis Museum of Art; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City; the Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina; and many other galleries and museums in the U.S. and Europe.

Works by Amy Cutler are featured in distinguished private and public collections, including, among others, The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, the Morgan Library and Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

In conjunction with the Toledo Museum of Art’s exhibition, Telling Stories: Resilience and Struggle in Contemporary Narrative Drawing, on view from November 21, 2020 - February 14, 2021.

How to Watch

All speaker series events will be webcast on Fridays at 8 pm EST at http://pennystampsevents.org and at https://www.dptv.org/programs/arts-culture/penny-stamps-series/ starting Friday, September 18. You can also watch the talks and join the conversation on the Penny Stamps Series Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PennyStampsSeries/.

Notice of uncensored content

In accordance with the University of Michigan’s Standard Practice Guidelines on “Freedom of Speech and Artistic Expression,” the Penny Stamps Speaker Series does not censor our speakers or their content. The content provided is intended for adult audiences and does not reflect the views of the University of Michigan or Detroit Public Television.