Photo by Maddie Cordoba

Artist Statement

I am infatuated with transcribing intimacy onto canvas, investigating the truth or unreliability of memory, and exploring the connection between viewer and painting formed by familiarity and nostalgia. My work is an extension of myself in every way, yet through the process of putting oil and pigment onto canvas, the compositions transcend my own narrative and become a universal one. By appropriating and distorting family photographs and reexamining distant memories, I aim to put nostalgia under a microscope and to identify the magnetic force that draws us again and again to certain moments in our past. To put these moments onto canvas is to confront them. My paintings often leave out parts of the figure, scratch into the surface, emerge in strange colors and lights, but ultimately their strange and incomplete compositions create a bridge between myself and the viewer that allows me to transcend these difficult moments as well as invite those observing the cathartic process to indulge in the nostalgia with me.

Bio

Annie Carroll was born in 1993 and raised in Washington, DC. She is a graduate of New York University’s studio art program with a concentration in painting. Before earning her BFA from NYU in 2015, Carroll previously studied at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Carroll has participated in and curated exhibitions around New York City, including her first solo show at the Greenpoint Gallery (Brooklyn) and her co-curatorial debut at Kunsthalle Projects (Brooklyn). Her work has been included in other exhibitions at both of these spaces, as well as shows at Pratt and the Williamsburg Art and Historical Society. Carroll worked at Kunsthalle Projects as a gallery intern for two years and at Davidson Gallery (Seattle) in the archival department during the Summer of 2015 — gaining invaluable experiences in both positions in the world of curation and art handling. Carroll also apprenticed for artist James Gortner, who shows at Lyons Weir Gallery in Chelsea. Carroll plans to continue her practice through studio work, curating and producing shows that feature the work and insights of her own generation.

Annie Carroll’s work was included in “Dialectic Recollection” curated by Rachel Vorsanger.

Interview

Selected Works