Villagers and New Villagers

Artist Carla Gannis American, born 1970

Date2003–2004

MediumDigital pigment print

Dimensions35 1/2 x 56 in. (90.2 x 142.2 cm)

ClassificationsPhotography

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the William R. Roberson Jr. and Frances M. Roberson Endowed Fund for North Carolina Art

Object number2006.4.2

On View

Not on view

Label Text
Carla Gannis invents her own world by seamlessly melding a variety of media with real and imaginary images. She starts by taking photographs—of her childhood home (in Oxford, North Carolina), her family and friends, places she travels to, and scenes she stages and sets up in her studio. She then uses computer programs to manipulate and re-create the composition—dropping in found images, removing elements from the original photograph, and digitally “painting” in light and color. Her process results in works that are strange and unsettling hybrids of truth and fiction, reality and fantasy. There is often something recognizable and familiar, side by side with the disjunctive and out of place.

“These works do not convey logical conclusions,” Gannis has said, “nor do they allow for easy categorization. Ultimately they reflect my beliefs that cultural truths can be expressed in absurd alterations of reality, and that hybrid forms of expression are natural outgrowths of art in the Digital Age.”
[L. Dougherty, 2006]ProvenanceCreated New York, 2003–2004; collection of the artist; [Pablo’s Birthday, New York]; given to NCMA, 2006.Published ReferencesCarla Gannis: Travelogue 2002-2004 (New York: Pablo's Birthday, 2004) (exhibition catalogue), illus (color) 53.Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, Pablo's Birthday, "Travelogue," 2004.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Close to Home,” August 18, 2013–February 9, 2014.
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