Oranges, 2023
Inkjet photo print and acrylic paint on canvas over board
20 × 16 in.
Unique
April 8, 2024
Anastasia Samoylova’s new series of overpainted and collaged photographs are an extension of her acclaimed FloodZone and Floridas series, which examine the environmental and cultural landscape of the Sunshine State. One of the distinct features of those photographs is that a particular visual language emerges from the Floridian locale, made up of the state’s flora and fauna, cultural signifiers, and lush color.
In this work, her painterly embellishments can seem like an outgrowth of the fecund plant life she photographs, as if the verdant subtropics cannot be confined within the borders of an image. The titular orange we see in the corner of the collaged photograph on the top right proliferates beyond the photo's edge, with a series of painterly gestures that deftly evoke Florida’s best known fruit, while diaphanous strokes of translucent white paint evoke a curtain swaying in a balmy breeze.
The gecko that is perched at the perimeter of the leafy composition captures the inquisitive spirit at play here—our guide that the proper way to explore these works is to allow ourselves to be immersed in them.
