2024: OPEN ARMS

Amie Dicke’s OPEN ARMS exhibition is currently on display at Anat Ebgi Gallery in New York City from September 6 to October 19. In her fourth solo show with the gallery, Dicke introduces new works from her recent sandpaper abrasion and cosmetics series, created over the past year. Also featured is a fresh installation of her intriguing ‘sugar books.’ These stories lose their narrative as sugar crystals envelop and obscure their pages, rendering them unreadable. What remains are luminous, pristine, textless surfaces — stunning, tactile, yet stripped of purpose.

Dicke is an “image defacer.” Her methods blur, smear, and warp the original material, breaking it down in unexpected ways. With a sharp eye for the overlooked, she zeroes in on peculiar details — a subtle gap between legs, a misshapen bedspread — redirecting our attention with deliberate care. Like a visual detective, she follows her instincts, approaching her work from unconventional angles. Guided by gut feeling and insight, she senses hidden potential within an image, which she then manipulates, whether by erasure, distortion, or enhancement. The result is a transformed piece, redefined by the tension and harmony of conflicting elements.