The Californian multidisciplinary artist fuses photography, sculpture and painting, exploring feminine sensuality between spirituality and physicality, mysticism and surrealism, architecture and geometry of forms.
Amanda Charchian magnifies feminine beauty in her compositions, capturing the body in its purest and most vulnerable form. A graduate of Otis College of Art and Design, specializing in painting and sculpture, she turned to photography. For the past ten years, she has explored the physical world between the subconscious and mystical realms in images imbued with mystery, surrealism, and serenity. Her collaborations include a myriad of magazines (British Vogue et Vogue Italia, Purple, Number) and brands and labels (Gucci, Chloé, Cartier, Vivienne Westwood, Sony Music, Universal Records). She also worked with the French luxury perfume house Ex Nihilo on the fragrance Idle Hour, by creating images inspired by "the idea that a particular smell draws us into a mental space forgotten by visual memory".
Art by women, for women
Exploring the world, connecting with people, honoring and creating beauty: these are the guiding principles of this Californian woman, of Iranian descent through her parents, who always keeps female empowerment and mystical sisterhood in mind. "Strong women are a constant source of inspiration. For me, a fully realized, self-made woman is the most powerful force in the world. She can do anything." Reflecting this image, Amanda Charchian is full of beauty, intelligence, skill, and talent. The artist, represented by the Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles, divides her work between painting, sculpture, photography, and even design. She created the table, for example. Lehzat, Made from fragments of marble, to enjoy "the sensual arts between eating, drinking, playing games, and flirting over tea," as she points out on Instagram. For Amanda Charchian, photographic work, whether analog or digital, remains a tool for shaping light, while allowing color to express itself.
Between body and architecture
At the heart of her process, the artist questions the relationship between the female body and architectural forms. The exhibition "Pheromone Hotbox" at the Steven Kasher Gallery in New York in 2015 became her first solo show. It presented 27 nude female artists in unique locations around the world, including Iceland, France, Costa Rica, Morocco, Israel, and Cuba. Her series Suit, presented at the Huxley-Parlour gallery during Photo London in 2018, combines her knowledge of painting with contemporary black and white nude studies. She examines the sensual experience of architecture, applying primary colors which she paints in acrylic. As for Pleasure and Service, these are images captured at Casa Organica by Javier Senosiain and Casa Mila by Antoni Gaudi. "I reflected on the intimacy of architecture and how curvilinear lines inform lived experiences and relate to the body, often evolving towards a subconscious level," she explains on her Instagram. For almost fifteen years, Amanda Charchian has been inventing her passion and love of art in a constantly evolving universe, made of gentleness, mystery and freedom.
Nathalie Dassa
Photo credits © Amanda Charchian
Acrylic on silver gelatin from the series Suit on the sensual experience of architecture.
Chromogenic printing
Perfume collaboration Idle Hour with Ex Nihilo (campaign photos)
Fragrance, design and campaign by Amanda Charchian
Table Lehzat,
Fragments of Silver Portoro and Calcutta Gold marble,
Orchid
Edition 1/3
Pleasure and Service(Senosiain and Gaudi)
Acrylic on silver gelatin print, oil on canvas in an artist's wooden frame.
Edition 1/3
United States – California
