Amanda Thackray is a multidisciplinary ecofeminist artist-educator based in Newark, NJ. Her community-engaged work pulls on the tenuous threads between nature, industry, and human experience, evoking strong themes of speculative fiction, labor, and the entwinement of human bodies with nonhuman kin. She is currently the inaugural EPA Lower Passaic River Artist-in-Residence, creating large-scale public artwork and community engagements that reflect the culture and resilience of living around the toxic superfund sites of the river’s watershed.
She is the recipient of multiple Creative Catalyst Fellowships, a Puffin Foundation Grant for Environmental Art, and a NJ State Council Artist Fellowship. She has held residences through The Arctic Circle, Svalbard; Center for Book Arts, NYC; and Museum of Art and Design, NYC, among others. Thackray earned a BFA from Mason Gross at Rutgers University and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), both in printmaking.
Thackray’s work is known for its meticulous detail and layered compositions that explore complex themes such as ecological change and industrialization. She draws inspiration from organic forms and industrial structures, creating art that evokes both beauty and a sense of unease. Her practice builds from the precision and tedium of printmaking to form textural and highly sensorial works and community-built engagements, often producing novel installations using meaningful site-specific materials.