About
Amy Ragus' work in photocollage has been exhibited in one-person and group exhibits in the US and abroad. Trained as a painter at Wellesley College (BA) and Columbia University (MFA), she turned to photography in the 1980s. She considers herself a painter who uses photo fragments as brushstrokes on a larger field.
She was a founding partner and Vice President of Fine Arts Express, Inc. (1978-1994) and an Assistant Professor of Art at Regis College (1995-2002).
Her work in public collections: The Rose Art Museum/Brandeis Univ., The Boston Athenaeum, The Danforth Museum, Virginia Center for the Arts, Brigham and Women's Hospital/Boston, LASM-The Louisiana Art & Science Museum, Columbia University, and The Spaulding R Aldrich Heritage Gallery.
Ragus is a three-time MacDowell Fellow and has been an artist in residence in various venues including Gros Morne National Park (Newfoundland), Yosemite National Park (California), Sitka Center for Art & Ecology (Oregon), Hermitage Artist Retreat (Florida), Moulin a Nef/Virginia Center for the Arts (Auvillar, France), and elsewhere.
The artist has had one-person exhibits at The Arnold Arboretum (Boston), The Catamount Arts Center (St. Johnsbury, VT), The Fruitlands Museum (Harvard, Ma), The French Cultural Center (Boston, Ma), Thoreau Farm Trust (Concord, Ma), Highfield Hall (Falmouth, MA) The Cummings Arts Center (Connecticut College), Bentley College (Waltham, Ma), Babson College (Wellesley, MA), Regis College (Weston, MA), The Deans Gallery at MIT (Cambridge, MA), The Art Complex Museum (Duxbury, MA), and The Tsongas Gallery at Walden Pond Concord, MA (with Thoreau Scholar Tom Blanding). A two-person exhibit (2015) at Danforth Art with Prilla Smith Brackett produced a catalog with essays by curators Jennifer Roscio and Michele Cohen.
https://images.on-this.website/userfiles/25140/fy15dasebrackettragusfracturedvisionsexhibitioncatalog2mbemail.pdf
A 2021 interview with Jennifer Nelson at the Woven Tale Press can be found via this link: https://www.thewoventalepress.net/photocollage-as-painting/
Recent Activity 2023-25: July 2024 One-person show at the Concord Free Public Library's Monroe Gallery in consort with the Annual Gathering of the Thoreau Society, Concord, MA. This show featured a new series referencing Thoreau's book "Cape Cod." Multiple images and writing included in the Thoreau Society Journal in the Spring 2023 and Fall 2024 issues. In 2025 inclusion in the Thoreau society exhibit for "Thoreau's Revolutons" Concord, Ma.
Other recent shows: A two-person collaboration, "Random and Response: Images by Amy Ragus and Calligraphic Art by C.A. Millner" at the Firehouse Center in Newbury, MA, in 2018 and 2017 at the Heritage Gallery" in Whitinsville. Also 2017 "Amy Ragus/Amy Ernst - The Third Entity" at the Sarasota Art Center, Florida May-June 2017 - a two-person show including collaborative work focusing on elements of Surrealism and Collage.
Recent Residencies: In 2021 (and in 2017) Ragus was an artist in residence at The Catwalk Institute in Catskill, NY. Also in 2017, she was a visiting artist at The Artist Association of Nantucket, and in 2018 at The Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill.
Ragus was born in New York City. Her parents met at the Cooper Union Art School in the East Village. The artist currently lives on Cape Cod.
She was a founding partner and Vice President of Fine Arts Express, Inc. (1978-1994) and an Assistant Professor of Art at Regis College (1995-2002).
Her work in public collections: The Rose Art Museum/Brandeis Univ., The Boston Athenaeum, The Danforth Museum, Virginia Center for the Arts, Brigham and Women's Hospital/Boston, LASM-The Louisiana Art & Science Museum, Columbia University, and The Spaulding R Aldrich Heritage Gallery.
Ragus is a three-time MacDowell Fellow and has been an artist in residence in various venues including Gros Morne National Park (Newfoundland), Yosemite National Park (California), Sitka Center for Art & Ecology (Oregon), Hermitage Artist Retreat (Florida), Moulin a Nef/Virginia Center for the Arts (Auvillar, France), and elsewhere.
The artist has had one-person exhibits at The Arnold Arboretum (Boston), The Catamount Arts Center (St. Johnsbury, VT), The Fruitlands Museum (Harvard, Ma), The French Cultural Center (Boston, Ma), Thoreau Farm Trust (Concord, Ma), Highfield Hall (Falmouth, MA) The Cummings Arts Center (Connecticut College), Bentley College (Waltham, Ma), Babson College (Wellesley, MA), Regis College (Weston, MA), The Deans Gallery at MIT (Cambridge, MA), The Art Complex Museum (Duxbury, MA), and The Tsongas Gallery at Walden Pond Concord, MA (with Thoreau Scholar Tom Blanding). A two-person exhibit (2015) at Danforth Art with Prilla Smith Brackett produced a catalog with essays by curators Jennifer Roscio and Michele Cohen.
https://images.on-this.website/userfiles/25140/fy15dasebrackettragusfracturedvisionsexhibitioncatalog2mbemail.pdf
A 2021 interview with Jennifer Nelson at the Woven Tale Press can be found via this link: https://www.thewoventalepress.net/photocollage-as-painting/
Recent Activity 2023-25: July 2024 One-person show at the Concord Free Public Library's Monroe Gallery in consort with the Annual Gathering of the Thoreau Society, Concord, MA. This show featured a new series referencing Thoreau's book "Cape Cod." Multiple images and writing included in the Thoreau Society Journal in the Spring 2023 and Fall 2024 issues. In 2025 inclusion in the Thoreau society exhibit for "Thoreau's Revolutons" Concord, Ma.
Other recent shows: A two-person collaboration, "Random and Response: Images by Amy Ragus and Calligraphic Art by C.A. Millner" at the Firehouse Center in Newbury, MA, in 2018 and 2017 at the Heritage Gallery" in Whitinsville. Also 2017 "Amy Ragus/Amy Ernst - The Third Entity" at the Sarasota Art Center, Florida May-June 2017 - a two-person show including collaborative work focusing on elements of Surrealism and Collage.
Recent Residencies: In 2021 (and in 2017) Ragus was an artist in residence at The Catwalk Institute in Catskill, NY. Also in 2017, she was a visiting artist at The Artist Association of Nantucket, and in 2018 at The Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill.
Ragus was born in New York City. Her parents met at the Cooper Union Art School in the East Village. The artist currently lives on Cape Cod.