Amber Moir’s works read as reflections of light and colour that are in states of perpetual motion. Her distinctive language of abstraction is rooted in process, and has developed primarily through investigating the potential of watercolour monotype printmaking. Following an experimental and fluid process, Moir is known to explore around and beyond conventional forms of printing. The process of making her large works initially involved emulating a large-scale etching press, either outdoors or on her studio floor, and utilising a pitch-roller as printing tool. Moir’s recent works are hand printed using a baren; a technique she learnt during a 2023 woodblock printmaking residency in Japan. Watercolours are used to paint on sheets of polypropylene plastic before being impressed onto damp calico fabric, creating a confluence of painting and print. Moir was originally drawn to printmaking by the feeling of facilitating a series of events rather than working directly on to a substrate. Unlike the controlled environment of the studio press, her experimental methods become more imprecise and unpredictable in the larger prints, leaving traces of the process in folds, creases and printed textures in the fabric. Moir emphasises the role of receptivity in her studio, exploring the tension between agency and facilitation and the skill of effectively ‘stepping in and then stepping out’. Recent works show a deeper material investigation of the prints as they evolve into books,  hand- sewn textile pieces or become ‘footprints’ for new drawings and paintings.

 

Amber Moir was born in 1990 in South Africa. Moir graduated from Stellenbosch University with a degree in Fine Arts in 2014. She returned in 2017 from two years of working and living on Kyushu Island, Japan, and currently lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa. 

 

To date, Moir has had four solo exhibitions, most recently Only the River at Reservoir Projects in Cape Town, South Africa. Between 2019 - 2021, Moir presented Composition by Field (2021), Along the Line (2020) and In Praise of Shadows (2019), all at Salon 91 in Cape Town. Selected group exhibitions include Falling Awake at The Fourth Gallery in Cape Town and To Whom It May Concern at Salon 91, Cape Town, both in 2021; Peep Show, an artist curated exhibition presented online in 2020; Spier Light Art Festival, Stellenbosch, South Africa in 2019; Proof at SMAC Gallery in Stellenbosch in 2018, SS17 at Gallery MOMO in Cape Town in 2017 and Domestic Odyssey at AVA Gallery in Cape Town in 2015.

 

Moir has participated in various group presentations at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, South Africa; Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Australia; and the Turbine Art Fair, South Africa. She participated in the MI-LAB Mokuhanga residency in Kawaguchiko, Japan in 2023