Berman Museum

Natessa Amin, Things to Hope For, 2016. Acrylic, dye, gouache, flashe, and dyed flocked paper on linen.
Natessa Amin, Things to Hope For, 2016. Acrylic, dye, gouache, flashe, and dyed flocked paper on linen.

Natessa Amin: Dancing on the Water Tank

Philadelphia-based artist Natessa Amin makes paintings and sculptures that incorporate unconventional materials such as printed fabrics, powdered pigments, flocked paper, cardboard, ceramic, plaster, and wood. Filled with vivid colors and sensuous texture, Amin’s immersive installations draw on her explorations of family history and her unique ethnic roots.  

Born in Pennsylvania to an American mother and an Indian father who was raised in Kenya, Amin finds inspiration for her work in vibrant African textiles, Pennsylvania Dutch folk art, and the intricate details of South Asian architecture and garden design. Travels abroad have further influenced her practice, in which the collage-like layering of shapes, patterns, and color works to activate memory and sift through personal experiences.  

Natessa Amin has exhibited her work at Hangar H18 Gallery, Brussels, and at the Woodmere Art Museum and Ice Box Project Space in Philadelphia. She is a co-director of FJORD, an artist-run exhibition space located in the North Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. Amin earned her BFA at Boston University and her master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania. She is an adjunct professor of visual arts at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pa. 

Natessa Amin: Dancing on the Water Tank is the first exhibition organized in conjunction with Ursinus College’s new minor in museum studies. It is co-curated by ten students—Kate Bormann, Shelby Bryant, Shannon Byrne, Teddi Caputo, Mattie Egerter, Morgan Larese, Annie Rus, Sophie Snapp, Dani Statuti, and Sarah Wilbert—and their professors, Berman Museum curator Ginny Kollak and Deborah Barkun, chair of the Department of Art and Art History at Ursinus.

All Berman exhibitions and programs are free and open to the public