“Untitled Wallpaper Abstraction #36” (2024), found wallpaper on birch panel, 36 x 48 x 8 inches. Photo by Tim Johnson. All images © Amy Feigley-Lee, shared with permission
From a distance, Amy Feigley-Lee’s colorful compositions are ambiguous and alluring. Are they woven? Protruding? Hollow? The closer one moves, details of meticulously-layered strips of wallpaper emerge on deep, geometric panels. Emphasizing color, pattern, and contrast, the artist plays with perspective and builds visual rhythms from the carefully arranged vintage material.
“The first wallpaper I used was a remnant from my grandmother’s living room,” Feigley-Lee tells Colossal. “It was a pastoral toile that really lent itself to narrative. I later found a cache of floral remnants in her attic. I used what I found, and soon after, friends and family started giving me wallpaper that they had laying around.” Now she sources much of her material from eBay, garage sales, or wherever she can find it.
Feigley-Lee is captivated by the associations we have with ornamental patterns and interior furnishings. “Domestic patterns are meant to be decorative in a way that is soothing, pacifying, demure, and reflective of cultural norms,” she says. Those ideas compelled her to approach the medium more conceptually, focusing on installation-based works that challenge traditional applications on broad, flat surfaces.
To create the foundations for each project, Feigley-Lee commissions Nick Pence of Pence Fine Art Services to construct bespoke, geometric birch panels that provide a smooth substrate. Once the panels are in the studio, she begins the meditative process of hand-cutting the paper into thin strips. The artist then arranges the pieces by size, saturation, and tonal values. She says, “I am excited about confounding the viewer and their perception of space, really engaging the viewer in a way that allows them to slow down and look deeply.”
Feigley-Lee’s work is on view in Detroit as part of Louis Buhl & Co.’s Salon Highlight series through July 17. See much more on the artist’s website, and check out her Instagram, where she often shares insights into her process.
“Untitled Wallpaper Abstraction #37” (2024), found wallpaper on birch panel, 36 x 32 x 6 inches. Photo by Tim Johnson
Left: “Untitled Wallpaper Abstraction #30” (2023), found wallpaper on birch panel, 6 x 6 x 1 inches. Right: “Untitled Wallpaper Abstraction #24” (2023), found wallpaper on birch panel, 35 x 45 x 6 inches. Photos by PD Rearick
Detail of a work in progress
“Untitled Wallpaper Abstraction #32” (2023), found wallpaper on birch panel, 42 x 32 x 7 inches. Photo by PD Rearick
Studio view with “Untitled Wallpaper Abstraction #24” in progress
“Untitled Wallpaper Abstraction #34” (2023), found wallpaper on birch panel, 53.25 x 20 x 3.5 inches. Photo by PD Rearick
“Untitled Wallpaper Abstractions #22, #29, #30, and #31” in progress
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