NADA New York 2023

Annie Lapin’s paintings reside in a world of multiplicities; digital histories and analog mark making come together to form trompe l’oeil spaces that abide neither to the rules of the virtual nor to the physical.

Initiating each painting with generous pours of paint and liquid graphite, Lapin’s abstract marks become the armature around which pictorial space is built. Punched with trompe l’oeil forms, photographic blur, and references to the sublime imagery of Western landscape painting and photography, the polyvalent scenes conjure a sense of mystery and fervor. An abstract form will quickly become part of a body or the extension of land. Polychromatic skyscapes—sourced both from the artist’s photo archive and visual media online—are rendered with hyper-realistic detail, while figures are consumed into epic environments that emerge from color fields. These various references coalesce into a fractured yet coherent depiction of our world, creating an experience akin to our own perception: one that is littered with conflicting information that must logically connect.

Lapin shares, “I imagine painting not as a representation of a place or thing, but rather an image of our longing to understand our world, which builds on and defines itself over time, like the contours of our historical narratives and myths.”