AMY CANNESTRA
ARTIST STATEMENT
The voice in my head is relentless, pointing out the flaws in my body and actions. My work interrogates the performative nature of everyday life and the toll that maintaining acceptable levels of happiness takes on mental health. As a conceptual artist, I use found objects and personal experience to visualize the push and pull between self-care and societal demands.
While my work stems from a personal narrative, it builds on the long history of artists using the body as a site for critique and emotional suppression, challenging societal expectations of womxn in art and life. By confronting the tension between public image and private struggle, I seek to break the cycle of suppression and reclaim the narrative around emotional expression. Through performance, material manipulation, and intimate self-exploration, I invite viewers to question their own relationship with vulnerability and the pressure to conform, carving out space for authenticity and embracing the messy, imperfect process of being human in a world that demands perfection.
BIOGRAPHY
Cannestra received her BFA in Communication Design from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design in 2006 and her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2015. Since receiving her MFA she has been performing and exhibiting internationally, participating in events such as the 2016 TransArt Triennial in Germany, ChaShaMa pop-up at the One World Trade Center in New York City, the 2017 TRIO: Biennial in Rio de Janeiro, and the 58th Venice Biennial in the Grenada Pavilion. In 2024 she installed two solo exhibitions; "I must be missing something" at Bliss Gallery in Waukesha, WI, and "The Body Problem" at Trout Museum of Art in Appleton, WI.
Alongside a thriving studio practice, Cannestra works full-time as a graphic designer at the Milwaukee Art Museum and owns Task Creative in Cudahy, Wisconsin. She is also part of SPOOKY BOOBS, a feminist collaboration that uses art, language, and design to visualize the trivialization of women’s experiences. Formed in 2014 by J. Myszka Lewis, Maggie Snyder, and Cannestra, SPOOKY BOOBS produces public performances and installations with the mission to halt the perpetuation of sexism in our culture.