Artist: Abigail Gunnels
Images: “Get Well Boutique – Susie” and “90 Years Under the Baseboard”
STATEMENT
My current body of work focuses on my fascination with detritus and decay consisting of plants, lint, bugs, animals, dirt, and hair that accumulate around my home. Each photograph creates a connection between my domestic space and nature. The objects function as a means for creating associations and relationships between time and narrative. The objects represent instances and are collected in collaboration with my family. I am a parent, wife, woman, and artist. I identify with these roles daily, sometimes independently of each other but more often these conflicting responsibilities are intertwined. When I look around my house, I see remnants of life, and accumulated evidence of time passing. Each still life is a portrait illustrating the balance between the artistic, feminine, professional, and domestic self.
BIO
Abigail is an artist and educator living in Poughkeepsie, NY with her wife and their 9 year old daughter. She engages with still and moving images to produce work that is reliant on both digital and analog processes. Abigail has exhibited worldwide including the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China and was awarded a solo show at the Woodstock Art Association Museum in Woodstock, NY. Most recently, she founded The Billboard Gallery on Hooker Ave in Poughkeepsie NY. She holds an MFA in Photography from the University of Florida, and a BFA in Photography from The Corcoran School of Art and Design. She studied at the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, Ireland and was awarded a summer residency at the Elsewhere Artist Collaborative with the performance group, $8 Sweater (retired). Abigail currently teaches in the Art Department at both Vassar College and Lehman College (CUNY).
