Amélie Chabannes is an artist who works in Drawing, Painting, and Animation Film. Chabannes was born in Paris, France, and studied Architecture and Fine Arts at the leading French Art School, ENSAD, and currently live and work in Brooklyn, NY.
In her paintings, Chabannes explore various representations of identity within philosophy, psychology, and art history. Following her project "Double Portraits and the Fourth Hand" (2012–2016), which examined the intersection of gender in collaborative artist couples, Chabannes was commissioned to draw and paint all original portraits and artwork for UNLADYLIKE2020, a timeless and resource-rich repository of U.S. women’s histories from the early years of feminism. From 2016 to 2021, Chabannes worked as the main artist and the artistic director for the animated documentary film series UNLADYLIKE2020, which premiered on PBS’s flagship biography program American Masters with 26 digital shorts and a one-hour television broadcast about diverse and little-known historical American heroines, and the women who now follow in their footsteps, in honor of the centennial of women's suffrage. These rebellious, persistent, and daring — unladylike! — women overcame severe sexism and racism to excel in science, medicine, politics, business, journalism, sports, aviation, and the arts at the turn of the 20th century — including the first woman to lead scientific expeditions in the Arctic, join the National Academy of Engineering, found a hospital on an American Indian reservation, serve in the U.S. Congress, become a bank president, swim across the English Channel, earn an international pilot’s license, sing opera on the main stage at Carnegie Hall, or direct a feature-length movie. Presenting this history in a bold new way, UNLADYLIKE2020 has reached over 6 million viewers to date. Major funding for the series was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with 18 additional funders including private foundations and state humanities councils. The series was nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award as part of American Masters’ 2020 season, and was a 2021 Webby Award honoree. The series also received a Silver Award at the 2021 Telly Awards, a 2021 Imagen Award for Best Short Film, and the My Hero Project’s 2020 Women Transforming Media Award.
From 2021 to 2022, Chabannes has produced All original artworks, animatics and art direction for a 6 hours animated Film series and an animated feature-length movie. Chabannes is currently working a large project funded by private art collections. “Taurokhatapsia” is a playful and poetic exploration of the Minoan matriarchal civilization, a sculptural and pictorial journey reflecting on the unique fallen empire, its visual remains, atypical symbols, and its past and present conceptual strength.
Chabannes’ work has also been exhibited in international venues including the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art (Ridgefield, Connecticut), The Gasthuismuseum (Geel, Belgium; curated by Jan Hoet), NADA Sculpture special exhibition (Miami, Florida), Kunsthalle am Hamburger Plaz (Berlin, Germany) Galerie Hussenot (Paris, France), Stephan Stoyanov Gallery (New York, NY), Syracuse University Art Center - The Red House (Syracuse, New York), Galeria Fernando Zubillaga (Caracas, Venezuela), S.E gallery (Bergen, Norway), White Box (new York NY), Galerie of Marseille (Marseille, France), Museo Frantz Mayer (Mexico City, Mexico), and Drawing Now (Louvre, Paris). Chabannes was awarded the International Center Award of Excellence for Fine Arts (New York, NY) along with artist Yoshitomo Nara, a Pollock Krasner Grant, and a grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).