Amy Pachowicz (b. 1968) Brown Sage & Feather, 2024 Oil stick on paper 60 x 42 in each

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OOLONG presents 

Amy Pachowicz Gilded Age 

February 7 – March 10, 2025

Walkthroughs featuring the artist by appt:

info@oolongallery.com | +1 858 229 2788

Gallery Hours: Wed – Sat 11 AM – 5 PM

Textile-based works such as Durga and Mountains incorporate pattern as a symbol of status, repetition, and control. In Durga, an abstraction of an Indian textile, the Hindu goddess emerges, embodying destruction and liberation from material constraints. Meanwhile, Mountains juxtaposes human-imposed order with an imagined Earth untouched by consciousness, a reflection on nature’s existence beyond human intervention.

Amy Pachowicz Durga, 2023 Acrylic on canvas 48 x 72 in

Mountains, 2024 Acrylic, ink on paper 56 x 84 in

"Mountains - left side represents human consciousness in the natural world, making patterns, creating status, organizing nature to suit humanity. Right side is my imaginary Earth with no human consciousness, quiet, done in ink. The textile pattern on the left side is a fabric from Provence, France."

"Alchemy manuscripts from the 14th c depict mazes of instructions to achieve enlightenment and immortality and a deep understanding of the universe. The descriptions are about turning metals into gold and using mercury to transform elements but they are thought to be a hidden code for a more spiritual undertaking. This series is about human language, how we use symbols, such as in Dark Sun, to define and describe again the natural world. Trying to make sense of our consciousness and why we are here, how to exist. There are hidden references to ancient symbols obscured by layers of time, washed away barely visible. Does a dead language mean anything? Does the name of a dead god have power if you invoke it? There are also symbols from non-white tribal languages written on mud walls mixed with imagery from the European manuscripts."

Dark Sun, 2020 Acrylic on canvas 60 x 48 in

The three botanical pieces are executed with oil stick and finger, no brushes.

Pachowicz’s delicate botanical renderings depict fragments of life—branches, feathers, and leaves—suspended in rich fields of color, relics of the natural world that once pulsed with vitality but now exist as remnants of what was. The artist grapples with the tension between artistic creation and the realities of global suffering, reflecting on what it means to live and create amid conflict and loss.

“I hang bundles of cut plants in my studio: flowers, sage, my neighbors weeds that grew four feet high, even a found feather. I dry them, sketch them and draw them in a large format. I draw them alone against a background of color. These are large scale oil stick drawings of relics suspended in space; remnants of the life that once flowed through them."

Amy Pachowicz Ironwood, 2024 Oil stick on paper 48 x 42 in

Amy Pachowicz Feather, 2024 Oil stick on paper 60 x42 in

The exhibition Amy Pachowicz Gilded Age at Oolong Gallery explores themes of memory, identity, and humanity’s evolving relationship with nature and culture. Her botanical works—Feather, Ironwood, and Brown Sage—capture fleeting life, loss, and resilience through delicate yet forceful depictions of natural remnants. These pieces emphasize a direct experience of nature, unmediated by digital or secondhand perception.

Amy Pachowicz Brown Sage, 2024 Oil stick on paper 59 x 42 in

Amy Pachowicz (born 1968) was raised in San Diego and is working with themes of nostalgia and nature. She studied archaeology and graduated from UCSD in 1996 with a minor in studio painting following a year at Barnard College, Columbia University, NY. 

Pachowicz’s practice is informed by an early academic foundation in archaeology, a discipline that continues to shape her exploration of artifacts—whether organic or printed—as vessels of memory and meaning. Her work has been exhibited at Oolong Gallery in Encinitas, juried exhibitions at the Athenaeum in La Jolla, and numerous group shows across San Diego since the late 1990s, including ICE Gallery in 2002. CV | Images: Philipp Scholz Rittermann

Amy Pachowicz (b. 1968) Untitled (female protrait series) 2025 Acrylic on panel 12 x 12 in

Pachowicz gestural female portraits, derived from 70s and 80s Penthouse models, examine the interplay of the male gaze, female sexuality, and visual storytelling. Simualtaneously playful and critical, these pieces capture fleeting moments, nostalgia, and a fascination with surfaces, fabrics, and adornment.

Throughout the show Gilded Age, Pachowicz reflects on impermanence, memory, and the constructed nature of reality, questioning how we perceive history, beauty, and truth in an era of relentless image saturation.

OOLONG

6030 La Flecha, Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067

Telephone +1 858 229 2788  Mobile +1 917 340 0877

www.oolongallery.com