Amy Boone-McCreesh | Future Histories: Solo exhibition

Morgan Lehman Gallery is pleased to present Future Histories, a solo exhibition of new works by Baltimore-based artist Amy Boone-McCreesh. Rooted in the historic labor of women—particularly the traditions of sewing samplers, domestic work, and the politics of decoration—Boone-McCreesh’s practice draws on textiles, folk art, and advertising to examine how materials and visual language signal class and socio-economic status in American culture. Her work engages with the idea of interiority—both as a psychological space and as a reflection of interior design—where ornament and accumulation reveal identity, taste, and aspiration.

At the heart of the exhibition is a suite of intricate works on paper, each formatted to the size of a standard cloth napkin. These vibrant, tactile pieces combine sewing, painting, and personal materials, including clothing belonging to the artist, to form layered compositions rich with hidden messages and symbolic detail. Echoing the tradition of the sampler, many of the works incorporate Boone-McCreesh’s initials, age, year, and geographic information—markings of authorship and presence that anchor the pieces in both personal and collective histories.

These works function as artifacts—objects that seem to have already lived a life, carrying with them a record of care, labor, and identity. Intimate in scale and rich in materiality, they reflect a deep engagement with historical time and presence through layered compositions and symbolic markings.

Complementing these pieces is a site-specific installation that expands on the idea of the sampler. Installed on the back wall of the gallery, the work mimics the compositional logic of the smaller paper pieces—echoing their structure, rhythm, and balance. Crafted in the style of decorative curtains or embellished textile panels, the installation features hand-painted borders, beaded and laser-cut letters, symbols, and numbers—forming a visual lexicon that continues Boone-McCreesh’s investigation into the aesthetics of legacy. A row of sculptural charms, suspended from small hooks embedded in the border, introduces bold, graphic forms that contrast with the work’s delicate colors and fine detail. These charms, inspired by high-fashion accessories and ideas of accumulation, amplify the piece’s reflection on taste, identity, and the performance of class.

Future Histories positions Boone-McCreesh within a lineage of women artists and makers across the past two centuries, while also imagining her work as part of a future dialogue around labor, beauty, and authorship.

Amy Boone-McCreesh (b. 1985, Caribou, Maine) is a multidisciplinary artist whose vibrant and maximalist works explore themes of decoration, material culture, and constructed environments. She has exhibited widely across the United States, with recent solo presentations at Future Fair (New York), Penn State University, the Academy Art Museum (MD), and Pentimenti Gallery (Philadelphia). Her work has also been shown at the Kreeger Museum, the Walters Art Museum, Asya Geisberg Gallery, and David B. Smith Gallery, among others. Boone-McCreesh was a finalist for the 2024 Janet and Walter Sondheim Prize and a 2023 Joan Mitchell Fellowship nominee. 

She is the founder and editor of INERTIA, an online studio visit series, and has contributed writing to BmoreArt. Her work has been featured in Hyperallergic, Artnet, Artblog, New American Paintings, and Beautiful Decay, and is included in collections such as Facebook, Capital One, and the U.S. Department of State's Art in Embassies program.

Boone-McCreesh holds an MFA from Towson University and a BFA from the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design. She is currently an adjunct faculty member at both the Maryland Institute College of Art and Towson University. She has held visiting professorships at Dickinson College and Franklin & Marshall, and regularly lectures as a visiting artist and critic. Her residencies include Loghaven (2024), the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and a two-year Hamiltonian Fellowship in Washington, DC. She lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland.