Jo Hamilton

November 5 – December 21, 2025 | Galería A.N. Bush

ARTIST STATEMENT

My large scale handmade wall works are crocheted from yarn, knot by knot with a small hook. My technique integrates years of drawing and painting with a craft I learned from my Gran during my childhood in Scotland. Being a craft it has a distinct language: speaking to and of generations of women, and as fabric it is universally relatable. The process of crochet is intimate and time-consuming, it involves knotting (and unraveling) hundreds of yarns to create each work. Each knot can be seen distinct as a second in time or may disappear into the whole, and this interplay between subject and material animates the work. I use the knotted fabric as a net to filter and transform traditionally dominant fine art genres and gender roles, and to empower a normally unassuming medium with contemporary significance. My work comprises a number of ongoing series depicting soft but muscular reclining male nudes, masked women portrayed as superheroes hiding in plain sight, venerable local and historical matriarchs. and cityscapes concerning the current breakneck pace of modern human manufacturing. Out of concern for the environment, my work is primarily made from post-consumer materials.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Jo Hamilton was born and grew up in Scotland. She moved to Portland in the 1990s after graduating from the Glasgow School of Art. Her work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and worldwide and is in numerous private and public permanent collections including the Portland Art Museum and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.