Biography

Born in Aix-en-Provence in 1982, Amélie Martinez alias AMSTED is a self-taught artist from the urban art scene. After ten years of professional experience in a psychiatric hospital and an attraction for artistic mediation, Amsted naturally turned to art therapy. This new path allowed her to drive her artistic creativity in bio inspiration and mimicry.

From her first strokes, Amsted's graphic writing revealed a sinuous form that has quickly become her favorite motif, the curve. For the artist, the abstract form allows an interpretation specific to each one, evoking undulating elements from the organic or marine world. Through her graphic representations, the artist instills a new look, a special attention on the world around us. The aim is also to present the dynamics of the living forms by the random sequence of simple gestures and to work out on an aesthetic vocabulary of the curve. The chosen space, whether urban or rural, allows the artist an immersion as well as an interaction of her street works with the environment.

As an art therapist, she was able to see how nature was a resource for humans. Finding nature is one of the first needs expressed by hospitalized patients, an essential element for balance. For Amsted, making, undoing, redoing, leaving an ephemeral trace, weaving a thread between what remains and what evaporates is of the order of cyclical movement. When we watch Amsted draw, we are fascinated by this gestural ease. A graphic work but also a living one because in the process of creation, the artist is one with the support and seems to unknowingly create an ephemeral dance.