Just announced, Amy Loewan is one of ten recipients of the 2011 Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund Award through the Edmonton Arts Council

Amy Loewan

Peace Projects

In the past decade, Amy has been focusing her work on the promotion of peace and understanding. Her large rice paper weave installation A Peace Project has been exhibited in public galleries across Canada as well as overseas in China.

Amy Loewan's exploration into innovative ways to use traditional art materials - rice paper and ink - promises to invite viewers into another dimension of her vision for a compassionate, caring world. When viewers are close enough to read this work, they are presented with eight values Amy considers vital in human relationships: compassion, kindness, respect, understanding, patience, tolerance, gentleness and forgiveness.

My art is about nature and its many manifestations. The purpose of my work is to promote peace, harmony and understanding.

Amy Loewan of Chinese origin was born in Hong Kong. She immigrated to Canada in 1978 and became a Canadian citizen in 1981.

In her first profession as an occupational therapist, Amy began a lifelong investment in working with people. She also had begun to explore art in earnest by the time she moved to Edmonton, Alberta, over 25 years ago. Her artistic journey led to the completion of her Master of Fine Arts Degree in painting from the University of Alberta in 1995. Many of her works illustrate the integration of her Chinese heritage with western postmodernist art practices.

Amy has received numerous grants and awards including The Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal's Award for Excellence in the Arts commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Since 1976, Amy has exhibited in major cities in Canada as well as New York, and Melbourne, Australia. Her most recent large rice paper weaving installation A Peace Project was shown in China in 2004 at the Shanghai Doland Modern Art Museum in Shanghai and the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre in Hong Kong.

She taught at the Fine Art Certificate Program of the University of Alberta, Faculty of Extension for a number of years but now works full-time on her art practice.
 
Amy uses the following languages, with varying degrees, in her Peace Project works:  Arabic, Croatian, Chinese, Cree, Danish, Dutch, English, Flemish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Icelandic, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Malagasy, Malay, Norwegian, Philippine, Punjabi, Polish, Russian, Sanskrit, Swahili, Spanish, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Zulu.