Biography

 

Amanda Bayard, a Swiss artist, has exhibited in Paris, New York, Zurich, Milan, Rome, Hong Kong, etc. notably at Art Basel, Basel, with the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan and Studio Paul Facchetti in Zurich and Paris. Her work has been reviewed in L'Oeil, the Tages-Anzeiger, Die Weltwoche, Le Figaro, etc., in various art catalogs and has appeared on Swiss Television TSR and on the Swiss National Evening News SRF.

 

 

Background and Studies

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Amanda Bayard was born in Valais, Switzerland, of a Swiss father and an Italian mother. From an early age she was inspired by family friends of the art world, notably by Manuel Gasser, author, art critic and co-founder of the newspaper “Die Weltwoche” as well as director of the art magazine “du” and by the photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, who holidayed with the Bayard family at their summer home in the Swiss Alps.

 

She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Subsequently, she enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence but chose to study independently, not following the curriculum. At the University of Geneva she attended lectures on contemporary and Chinese art.

 

Amanda Bayard is at home in various cultures. She has lived and worked in Paris, Vienna, Florence, Rome, Toronto, San Cristóbal de las Casas and in New York, where she set up a studio in the Hotel Chelsea. She has traveled in Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, China, Russia and Ukraine, etc. painting in many of these places. In 1981 she moved to Paris where she spent the next twenty-one years interspersed with travels and with stays in the Swiss Alps. At the Palio di Siena, she met her future husband, the artist Andrei Prychodko.

 

 

Selected Solo and Group Exhibitions

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Starting in 1982 and over the next years, Amanda Bayard exhibited at the Paris (Ave Friedland) and Zurich galleries of Paul Facchetti. She had a decades long friendship with Paul, who came often to her studio, influencing the development of her work. He had played a key role in bringing into the canon such artists as Dubuffet, Fautrier, Wols, Sam Francis, Mathieu, Henri Michaux, Hundertwasser and was the first to show Jackson Pollock in Europe.

 

In 1983 Amanda Bayard exhibited with Gallery Weber S.A. of Geneva at Art Basel, Basel.

 

In 1983, at Art Basel, she met Renato Cardazzo, who showed her work at his Galleria del Naviglio in Milan.

 

In 1984, on the recommendation of the Swiss art critic Fritz Billeter, she showed at Gallery Spleiss in Zurich. The show was reviewed in Switzerland’s Tages-Anzeiger.

 

In 1986 on a second extended stay in Asia, Amanda Bayard met with prominent Chinese artists and calligraphers and had the privilege of painting with them.

 

In 1986 Amanda Bayard exhibited her work at Le Genie de la Bastille in Paris, organized by the French National Center for Visual Arts and the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs of Paris.

 

In 1988, at Le Cadre Gallery in Hong Kong, her show consisted of her works on canvas paired with contemporary design furniture.

 

In 1992 Amanda Bayard's work was shown at the Gallery Wexler in New York.

 

In 1998, her exhibition at the Paris Center of Art and Culture, the Espace Kiron, was reviewed in the art magazine l’Oeil and Le Figaro, in its weekly rubric of recommended shows. To accompany this exhibition a monograph was published that was carried in the bookstores of the Pompidou Center, in the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris/ARC and in La Hune, Paris, etc.

 

In 1999 this exhibition moved from Paris to the headquarters of the Lonza Group, Switzerland. The exhibition was presented on the Swiss French Television TSR.

 

In 2001 Amanda Bayard was commissioned by the medieval Swiss city of Murten to create a painted sculptural fish. Her work was shown on the Swiss National Evening News SF.

 

In 2002 she exhibited at Galleria Arturarte Contemporanea, Rome.

 

From 2003 to 2008 Amanda Bayard resided in the USA, where she completed degree studies in theology.

 

Since 2008 she lives with her husband Andrei Prychodko at Crans-Montana, Switzerland, producing a new art series and is currently writing.

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