BANFF, ALBERTA, CANADA.- The Whyte Museum presents the exhibit Barbara Amos: Cutting up the Park through October 9, 2006. Barbara Amos’s whimsical "cut-ups" explore some of the best-known regions of Banff National Park through the process of rearranging iconic scenes of the Canadian Rockies to reflect the varying pressures on the land. Through her work, we are able to contemplate these dilemmas further by viewing a multi-layered perspective on a complex issue. Paintings of Lake Louise, with their serene brushwork and iconic choice of subject, explore the dilemma by contrasting the concepts of unspoiled beauty and fragmented, parceled land; vastness and segmentation; the palette of nature against a man-made palette.

The works of Barbara Amos involve a local scene that is cut up, distorted or rearranged. The realism is a starting point that dissolves into layering, fragmenting and restructuring, creating a metaphor for the changes in our society. For the past few years her work has focused on urban and corporate themes. Her recent work has moved into the landscape and environmental issues. She has worked in various painting mediums, in video and in digital imagery.

She has been short listed on national and international public art competitions and recently completed a 90 foot work for Cardel Place in Calgary, Alberta. Her work is in the US Library of Congress. The Alberta Foundation for the Arts, RBC Dominion Securities and Esso Resources are a few of the organizations that have added her work to their collections.

A recipient of grants and scholarships, she has also been active on board of a public gallery, a national art association, and assisted with the selection of programming and exhibitions for artist run centres and local art groups.

Barbara Amos graduated from the University of Waterloo, and continued studying at the Ontario College of Art and the Alberta College of Art. She has exhibited at the New York artist run centre, Exit Art Gallery, at the Williamson Gallery, Art Centre College of Design, Pasadena CA and in Canada her work has been shown in many public and commercial galleries from Vancouver to Montreal.