Amelia Coward

About

Amelia Coward is a British mixed media artist whose practice unites colour, geometry and material craft through hand-painted wood and vintage maps. Trained at St Martins and the RCA, her work explores colour interaction, place and memory, and is held in private and corporate collections internationally.

Statement

Here’s the revised version with those changes included: My practice investigates the relationship between colour, place, memory and human movement through abstract geometric compositions made from vintage maps, painted wood and found printed materials. I am interested in how fragments can be gathered, ordered and transformed into something balanced and coherent. A recurring drive within my work is the desire to create order out of chaos, using colour, repetition and geometry to bring structure to complex, layered materials. Maps are central to my work because they record both geography and human behaviour. They show land, borders and routes, but they also reveal our need to organise, divide, name and claim the world around us. My 3000 sq ft studio is home to over 40,000 maps collected over 25 years, which I use as both medium and colour palette. These maps carry histories of migration, ownership, conflict, memory and belonging. Borders are often invisible in the physical landscape, yet they are drawn, defended and patrolled. By cutting into original maps and physically deconstructing the borders they depict, I question the authority of these lines and the systems of ownership they represent. Territories, coastlines and place names are fragmented, repeated and rearranged into new geometric structures. What was once a fixed document becomes unstable and open to reinterpretation. Alongside my map-based works, I also create non-map pieces using hand-painted wood, vintage botanical imagery and other archival printed materials. These works continue the same investigation into colour interaction, rhythm, repetition and spatial balance, but shift the focus towards the emotional and sensory effects of colour, pattern and material. Whether using maps, painted panels or botanical fragments, the process remains one of cutting, arranging and rebuilding. My work also considers ideas of blended identity, cultural inheritance and the feeling of belonging or not belonging. Fragments of different places, colours and histories sit beside, across and within each other, creating compositions where separation gives way to rhythm, colour and pattern. In this way, the work reflects the movement of people across land and time, and the complex ways identities are formed through place, memory and displacement. Colour theory is fundamental to my practice. Influenced by the teachings of Josef Albers and my background in woven textiles, I use repetition, structure and colour interaction to build compositions that balance precision with emotion. I use a laser cutter much as I was trained to use a loom, constructing surfaces from repeated elements, where each fragment contributes to the whole. Through colour, geometry and material, I aim to create work that is visually ordered but conceptually layered, inviting reflection on land, movement, borders, memory and the human desire to belong.

Education

• 2000MA Woven Textiles, Royal College of Art, London
• 19981st Class BA Hons Textile Design , Central St Martins College of Art and Design, London
• 1995Foundation Diploma in Art and Design , Central St Martins College of Art and Design, London

Exhibitions

Recognition

Commissions

I regularly undertake commissioned works for corporate, hospitality and domestic projects, working with art advisors, interior designers and directly with collectors. I create custom-sized pieces to suit specific interiors and projects, as well as bespoke map-based works that incorporate locations of personal, historical or professional significance.