Ricky Amadour, an artist who goes solely by Amadour, is a third-year art student. They have been an artist their whole life, starting initially in small fashion sketches of fairies and fairy godmothers when they were really young.
Amadour likes to cultivate the feminine in their work. In reference to their inspiration in fashion design, they were always attracted to how women put on jewelry and wear high heels, even experimenting with both when they were younger in order to fully comprehend femininity.
Amadour then progressed from fashion design to making intricate sketches of cities and skylines, both of which are present in their piece hanging in the 2017 Undergraduate Juried Exhibition. This 15 feet by 4 feet graphite-on-canvas piece is an anthology of several references in a forensic continuum. It references Instagram, found images, places where they have been and even the Vatican.
Amadour prefers working on the larger scale. They feel that the larger the piece does not technically make something better; but rather that larger-sized pieces are more impactful and draws viewers in more.
According to their website, Amadour sees art as ''a restoration of wholeness for gender identities that have been fractured and split by the relentless drumbeat of a commercial media culture.''
One of Amadour's fashion designs was at the 59th Grammy Awards. They designed a dress with a skirt made completely out of ball-pit balls for the singer Girl Crush.
Amadour does not have a preferred medium because they do not wish to be confined to being one type of artist. They are currently working mostly in graphite, but they also work in video, sound design, photo and paint.
Last year, Amadour created a photo series that explored aspects of love through self-portraits. The series also referenced the artist's belief that art exists outside of gender binaries, by putting on make-up and wearing clothes of both genders.