About Sam

The Artist

I was raised in Western Washington and spent my childhood running through the trails of Olympic National Park. The landscape will forever shape and influence my work. I am represented in Asheville, North Carolina at Momentum Gallery. 

The Work

I make work that speaks to the personal relationship of images, the recognition of the familiar in an intangible and reaching sort of way. My work evokes a feeling, an uncovering. I want the work to be thought about, to invite revisiting and to hold an affinity for the viewer. The work is about glimpses, impressions that build to an awakening at the edges of recollection. It is not a puzzle to reward the viewer for figuring it out or an exercise in identification, it is about coming home in a small way.

I read books on poetry, faith, myth, and history. As people we develop our own personal history, mythology, and cherished poetry. I want my work to draw on those cerebral possessions that are both entirely personal and hold the threads that connect people.

Bio

Samantha Bates’ repeated marks form and un-form nature before the viewer’s extended attention; building an unfolding experience into perception, memory and seeing.  She grew up surrounded by the wilderness of Washington state. The land permeates her work in form, concept, representation, and practice. Bates earned a 2D Master of Fine Arts at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Art in painting and drawing at the University of Washington. Her work has been shown across the country in group exhibitions at The Rose Center for the Arts, Momentum Gallery, Alpha Gallery, Jacob Lawrence Gallery, ArnheimGallery, Sandpoint Gallery, The University of Washington Club, Student Life Gallery, Doran Gallery, as well as Bakalar and Paine Galleries. Her work has been featured in solo shows at The Rose Center for the Arts, Momentum Gallery, STAR Center, Parnassus Cafe and Gallery and the Spokane Transit Authority Plaza. She has created permanent murals in North Carolina, Oregon, and Washington. Her work was featured in The Boston Globe in Cate McQuaid’s article “Expect to See More in the Future Form These Up-and-Coming Artists.” She lives and works in her hometown of Tacoma, Washington

All artwork in the website is copyright the artist. Reproduction and distribution of this artwork without written permission of the artist is prohibited.