FANTASYLAND

Mary Anne Kluth
Clare Szydlowski
Shannon Taylor

March 5 – 30, 2016

Mary Anne Kluth’s collages of imaginary landscapes are pieced together from actual snapshot photographs of fake landforms taken at theme parks. Influenced by historical American painters and adventurers, but echoing video games and digital animation, her works demonstrate the current literal and metaphorical distance between entertainment and reality.

Clare Szydlowski’s hand-pulled CMYK screen prints depict billowing forest fires and dust storms in hyper-controlled suburban areas. Selecting images at the boundary of the American dream and natural chaos, her compositions resonate with media disaster coverage and narratives about idyllic domestic situations from the 80s and 90s, while emphasizing the sublime beauty of order unraveling.

Shannon Taylor’s watercolors portray figures and nudes, typically pin-ups from the early 20th century, surrounded by plants, animals, or other cosmological settings. Framed with almost religious gravitas, these overtly bewitching images subtly challenge contemporary American beauty ideals and conjure cinematic, escapist narratives.

Artist links:
Clare Szydlowski: americanhinterlands.com / Instagram
Mary Anne Kluth: maryannekluth.com / Instagram
Shannon Taylor: shannondtaylor.com / Instagram

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