Artist: Amy Grantham

Findlay Galleries presents An Eye Made Quiet, the debut New York solo exhibition by artist Amy Grantham.

This body of work represents years of Grantham’s creative engagement with The Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach, famously interpreted by pianist Glenn Gould in his first studio album. The variations—renowned for their technical and emotional complexity—serve as the conceptual foundation for Grantham’s visual interpretation.

In these works, Grantham translates Bach’s contrapuntal structures into layered forms and harmonies of color. While not strictly synesthetic, her compositions evoke a vivid intersection of sound and image, where music transforms into line, shape, and hue.

Executed entirely in pastel on paper, the pieces in An Eye Made Quiet achieve a depth and saturation that defy the expectations of the medium. From a distance, it’s difficult to believe such intensity of color and form could come from pastel alone—yet it is precisely this choice that gives the works their resonance.

The influence of Orphism and Synchromism—movements adjacent to Cubism—is evident throughout, with Synchromism playing a particularly prominent role. Grantham’s work also echoes the pioneering abstraction of artists like Wassily Kandinsky, adding a historical dimension to her contemporary practice.

Originally from Tallahassee, Florida, Grantham is now based in New York City. She has worked across diverse mediums, including acrylic, watercolor, and photography. Her photographic self-portrait is part of the permanent collection at the National Gallery in London.