Amy Oden

About the Artist

A multi-disciplinary visual artist, Emmy Award winning producer and director Amy Oden is best known for her person-first documentary and multimedia work. Amy’s oil painting works are represented by the Lockhouse Gallery in Maryland.  Amy served as senior director of the video team at the Human Rights Campaign, where she produced and supervised the production of video content advocating for LGBTQ+ communities. Her recent project "Daniel Really Suits You” won the social impact award at TribecaX in 2025, screened at Sundance’s BrandStorytelling in 2025, and earned a 2024 Vimeo Staff Pick. Amy’s independent work has been supported by the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, earned national distribution via PBS, has been fiscally sponsored by the International Documentary Association, and has been granted fellowship in the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund at Johns Hopkins. She has filmed for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the AFL-CIO, managed multimedia for a United States Presidential Library, and shot on location with the team that produced the original Carl Sagan “Cosmos” series for PBS. Amy served as a senior producer and manager of multiplatform strategy at PBS’s Maryland Public Television for seven years, where she led content initiatives funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Maryland Department of Health, and the Maryland Department of Transportation. Her work earned three Emmy Awards, and shed light on a variety of social and scientific topics, including the Baltimore uprising, fracking, mass incarceration, and the opioid crisis.   Amy holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Maryland and an MA from George Washington University. Her work has won Communicator, Emmy, Davey, Tribeca, and W3 Awards. More info on her video work is available at www.filmsbyamyoden.com and her video art and paintings at substack.com/@artbyamyoden

Artist's Statement

I have been making documentary work for over two decades. My vision has always stemmed from a desire to use media as a tool for community empowerment, and I am eager to continue telling stories. Through my work, I seek to raise new awareness and broaden understanding. I also strive to provide opportunities for marginalized people to see ourselves more richly portrayed as complex and gorgeous. I am grounded in my participation in and love for my queer, women’s, and artistic communities, and seek to illustrate their beauty as a way of holding a mirror up to us all, and as an act of defiance against oppressive forces in our culture today. Making media is, for me, an act of affirmation, and an offer of steely hope in spite of all we are currently facing in the world. I bring documentarian sensibilities to my painting, aiming to represent the way light and shadow play in a gestural, impressionist way. I began studying and producing art as part of my undergraduate work, and the vast majority of my artistic practice and understanding comes from my foundation in moving image. Painting pushes me to explore harsher lighting and brighter colors than the ones I tend toward in video. I use only my own photographs as references, and have been painting regularly in oils for 3 years. I enjoy bringing bright color and motion to the canvas; I believe it allows the beauty in the natural world to reverberate in exciting ways. I hope viewers find a sense of tranquility from my work, and that it helps them see more beauty in their daily lives.