At the Academy: Amze Emmons and his Pattern Drift

For the record, the Academy Art Museum rarely fills all three of their first floor galleries with the same artist, so it’s a pretty strong clue as to how seriously the AAM appreciates their work when this does happen. And that is certainly the case with Philadelphia-based Amze Emmons’ current exhibition entitled Pattern Drift at the South Street arts center.

Bringing together fifteen years of the artist’s work in documenting the realism of urban life through the influence of comics and cartoon language, information graphics, news footage, and even packaging, Emmons has used his observations to bring new life to familiar scenes of construction sites, road closings, and such iconic urban artifacts like the traffic warning cones or plastic chairs.

The Spy sat down with Amze a few days before he leaves Easton after a few weeks in residence about work and his connection to these illustrative examples of 21st-century living.