Amalia Amaki facts for kids

Amalia K. Amaki, born Lynda Faye Peek on July 8, 1949, is a talented African-American artist. She is also an art historian, a teacher, a film critic, and a curator. From 2007 to 2012, she taught modern and contemporary art at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. She lived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama during that time.

Amalia Amaki's Early Life and Education

Lynda Faye Peek was born in Atlanta, Georgia. She was the fourth of six daughters in her family. Her father, Norman Vance Peek, was a singer. He sang with a group called the Deep South Boys of Macon, Georgia.

Amalia was a very creative child. She knew from a young age that she wanted to be an artist. When she was about 10 years old, she met the famous African American painter Hale Woodruff. He greatly influenced her artwork. She even made her first sale when she was only 13! She created art using yarn and burlap bags. These pieces were shown in a furniture store in Atlanta. A customer bought the furniture and thought her art was part of the deal.

Her Journey Through College

Amaki graduated from Georgia State University in Atlanta in 1971. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism and psychology. In 1978, she changed her name to Amalia K. Amaki. Soon after, she moved to New Mexico. There, she earned another bachelor's degree from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This degree was in photography and art history.

She continued her studies at Emory University in Atlanta. She earned her master's degree in 1992. This degree focused on modern European and American art. In 1994, she received her Ph.D. from Emory University. Her Ph.D. was in twentieth-century American art and culture.

Teaching and Curating Career

Amaki has taught art history at several colleges. These include Spelman College, Morehouse College, and Atlanta College of Art in Atlanta. She also taught at Kennesaw State University and North Georgia College and State University.

In 2001, she became the Curator of the Paul R. Jones Collection of African American Art. This collection is at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware. She was also a faculty member in the Art History and Black Studies Departments there until 2007. After that, she taught art, art history, and visual studies at the University of Alabama until 2012.

Amalia Amaki's Unique Artwork

Amaki's art explores African-American life and culture. She often uses photographs in her work. These photos are frequently placed inside boxes, quilts, and fans. She adds special touches to her pieces with found objects. These can be things like buttons, beads, flowers, and small pieces of fabric.

Amaki started working with buttons when she was a child. Her mother gave her buttons to play with because marbles were considered too boyish. Her art also includes photo quilts, which are made using a special printing process called cyanotype. She also creates large digital photographs on fabric. In these, she uses portraits to discuss ideas about how people are seen in commercials, how cultures are branded, and how cultural assumptions are made.

Where to Find Her Art Collections

Amaki's art can be found in many private art collections around the world. Her works are also part of the permanent collections in several museums. These include:

• The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in Houston, Texas
• The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia
• The Minnesota Museum of American Art in St. Paul, Minnesota
• The University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware
• The Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina
• The Albany Museum of Art in Albany, Georgia
• The Hammonds House Museum in Atlanta, Georgia
• The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA-GA) in Atlanta, Georgia
• The Tubman African American Museum in Macon, Georgia

Notable Exhibitions of Her Work

Amalia Amaki's art has been featured in important exhibitions:

• "Amalia Amaki: Boxes, Buttons and the Blues" This exhibition showed 80 of her mixed-media artworks. It was a team effort between the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art. It opened in Washington, D.C., at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. It was on display from June 10 to September 25, 2005. Then, it moved to Atlanta and was at Spelman from January 26 to May 13, 2006.
• "Homage: Poems and Images of Gratitude and Affection" This exhibition was held at the Arnold Art Gallery at Shorter University in 2011. Later, it was shown at The Art Gallery at Eissey Campus, Palm Beach State College, in 2014.