Amanda Krantz

I'm an artist (a painter mostly) and I live and work from my studios in Melbourne, Australia, and Honolulu, USA.

I started painting full-time in 2004, and was coincidently about the time when an art market appeared on the internet. Although I had completed a bachelor degree in contemporary art a few years earlier, I wasn't ever expecting to have any success in the cut throat world of art that I had learned so much about. But I found myself unemployed, broke, and painting. And to my surprise and joy, there were these people on the other side of the internet that liked what I was making. I'm sure that if it were any other time in history I'd still be working in a bar (not that there's anything wrong with working in a bar! I loved it, and I often miss that life, but I have come to think that I'm better at pouring lacquers than liqueurs). Amanda Krantz is an artist, primarily a painter, who lives and works from her studios in Melbourne, Australia, and Honolulu, USA.

She began painting full-time in 2004, coinciding with the emergence of the art market on the internet. Despite having completed a bachelor's degree in contemporary art a few years earlier, she never anticipated achieving any success in the fiercely competitive art world she had learned so much about. However, circumstances led her to be unemployed, broke, and immersed in painting. To her surprise and delight, she discovered a community of people on the other side of the internet who appreciated her artistic creations. Amanda believes that if it were any other point in history, she would likely still be working in a bar—a profession she loved and often misses. Nevertheless, she has come to realize that she excels more at pouring lacquers than liqueurs.

Since then, Amanda Krantz has embarked on artist residencies in Japan, Thailand, and Tasmania, showcasing her work in numerous exhibitions across Australia, Italy, Los Angeles, North Carolina, and NYC. Notably, her artwork can be found in the Presidential Suite of the Renaissance Plano in Texas, as well as a prominent public commission displayed in the courtyard of The Ritz Carlton in Puerto Rico. Furthermore, she had the privilege of creating a large 10-piece public art commission for Ovation of the Sea, a Royal Caribbean liner.

The artist thinks of their work as organic-psychedelia. The artworks are familiar depictions of ecology, yet they possess an otherworldly quality.

They are particularly drawn to the universal patterns found in nature, ranging from the minuscule to the immense. They find inspiration in the way a coral reef in northern Queensland exhibits similar organic patterns as fungi thriving in the alpine tundra of Tasmania. This fascination leads to an imaginative exploration of what lies beyond our current knowledge, encompassing interplanetary or inter-dimensional realms, as well as lesser-explored known worlds like those of moss, fungi, and entomology. These are places of meticulously cultivated beauty that manipulate our perception of scale, evoking a nostalgic sense of fantasy.

Their artistic process revolves around a playful exploration of materials. They view their relationship with paints as symbiotic, acknowledging the paints' lifelike fluidity. Acting as a facilitator, they allow the materials' innate ability to create chaotic and serendipitous effects. By harnessing the forces of gravity and heat, they employ natural phenomena to imitate nature itself. This scientific approach is executed in an organic manner, resulting in the creation of science-fiction-inspired and psychedelic landscapes, along with quasi-alien forms of life.