Amy Westpfahl - Bio

 

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin Amy Westpfahl moved to New York City in 1995 where she currently lives and works today. She received a BFA in 2000 from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science & Art after which she earned an MFA from Hunter College n 2007.

 

Working from a conceptual approach and using a combination of mediums, the work responds to the many disparities between social classes, women's issues and gentrification among other social, economic and political inequities of contemporary culture.  Heavily influenced by a history of community activism the work often leads the viewer to the question of, "is it art or is it activism?" and hopes to challenge the viewer between the aesthetic beauty in the images and the ugly of the content they present.

 

Having worked for more than a decade at ABC No Rio a Community Center for Art & Activism on Manhattan's Lower East Side, she built and documented the building of a community darkroom space, constructed a community garden, severed on the visual arts committee and founded the Community Arts Partnership Program (CAP), a free high school art program for youth of the Lower East Side. She has also collaborated with other organization such as MADRE conducting photography workshops for youth of IBDAA, a refuge camp in Palestinian. 

 

Currently she works at the Cooper Union as the Coordinator of Recruitment and Admissions for the School of Art Admissions Committee, and is an adjunct lecturer at Lehman College in the Bronx and Borough of Manhattan Community College in downtown Manhattan. She exhibits her work throughout the New York and the United States including: Priska Juschka Fine Art, Artist Space, ISE Cultural Foundation and Jersey City Art Museum/Victory Hall.