Anastasia Samoylova
House on Stilts, 2023
Archival pigment print and acrylic paint on canvas board
14 × 11 in.
Walker Evans
Anna Maria, Florida, 1958
Oil on fiberboard
26 × 20 in.
© Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
June 17, 2024
Anastasia Samoylova’s photography has been closely linked to the state of Florida, and with her recent series of Overpainted Photographs, images of the state’s iconic buildings, flora, fauna, and palette are all collaged within the painterly works. We were pleased to debut this body of work at the 2024 AIPAD fair.
Her upcoming two person show Floridas with Walker Evans at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (opening October 14, 2024) highlights Evans’ own work in the state. Evans was commissioned in 1941 by newspaperman Karl Bickel to photograph widely in the state for Bickle’s book The Mangrove Coast: The Story of the West Coast of Florida, and the colorful Floridian coast was a subject Evans returned to in the following decade when he was making paintings, like the one below from The Met's collection. It’s intriguing to see how the locale inspired both photographers to expand their photography practice in painterly directions. The Evans painting below shows the unmistakable influence of vernacular sign painting, which Evans captured extensively in his photographs, while the calligraphic marks in Samoylova's work evoke the gestural energy of contemporary street art.
