Artwork:
Amy J. Dyck. Larissa II (experiment with fracture). Oil on canvas. 2017.
This work presents a psychologically charged, intimate figure caught between fragmentation and cohesion. The subject’s face, softly rendered and partially obscured, emerges from a tangle of gestural hands and voluminous fabric, suggesting both protection and constraint. Dyck’s painterly approach—loose, tactile brushwork layered with assertive linear accents in blue—creates a sense of shifting boundaries between body, garment, and surrounding space.
The figure appears inwardly focused, eyes closed, as if suspended in a moment of internal reckoning. As in much of Dyck’s work, the piece navigates the complexity of embodied experience, evoking vulnerability, multiplicity, and deep, quiet resilience.
Artist:
Amy J. Dyck is a BC–based artist whose practice blends representational imagery with expressive, often abstract elements to explore the complexity of the human experience. Working across collage, oil paint, drawing, and mixed media, she often creates autobiographical works rooted in self-portraiture and figurative imagery. Drawing from anatomical studies, visual research, and lived experience, Dyck constructs compositions that reflect the internal and external systems of the body and mind. Her intuitive process—cutting, assembling, and reworking materials—results in figures that embody vulnerability, resilience, and psychological depth, aiming to express aspects of being human that extend beyond what is immediately visible.
Largely self-taught, Dyck has developed her practice through extensive independent study, research, and engagement with historical and contemporary artists. She lives and works in Langley, BC, and actively contributes to her artistic community by teaching and demonstrating painting and drawing for all ages throughout Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. Her work has been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions and is held in collections across North America and internationally. A significant turning point in her life came in 2017, when a sudden health crisis left her in a wheelchair; she has since used her art as a means of processing, healing, and understanding her experiences of disability, resilience, and identity.
Deep Dive:
Visionary Art Collective interview with the artist.
If you have a bit more time – Women United Art Podcast episode: Art After the Bad Thing Happened with Amy J. Dyck. (42 min.)
Foundation:
The Canadian Art Preservation Foundation posts short biographies and information on artists and artwork from its collection in a not-so-subtle attempt to capture your attention and interest in our mission, but we also just want to keep this artwork in view.
We are excited about the art we collect and want to share it with you. CAPF is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the artwork of Canada’s superstar artists for future generations to examine, study and exhibit – the ones you know and the ones you might not know so well. We accept artwork, journals, notes, letters, exhibition catalogues and anything else that might comprise a visual and/or intellectual “portrait” (ahem, please pardon the pun) of a particular artist.
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