Anna Plesset

Lives and works in Pound Ridge, NY

Artist statement

My work reframes history to reveal what has been obscured by erasure, discrimination, and time. Research-based and conceptually driven, my multi-disciplinary practice examines the mechanisms that shape history and draws on the centuries-old tradition of trompe l’oeil painting to challenge viewers’ perceptions and subvert their expectations, thus calling into question what they see and believe they know. The illusions I create through labor-intensive processes demonstrate how easily we overlook what’s before us and mirror my conceptual framework by drawing a parallel between trompe l’oeil painting and history: both are highly convincing constructions perceived as fact. My current project, "American Paradise," reframes the history of the Hudson River School to give visibility to women who painted in the tradition associated with this iconic 19th-century American landscape painting movement, yet have been largely omitted from the canon. This project’s title is borrowed from "American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School," the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s canon-defining 1987 exhibition that perpetuated the mythology of the movement as being founded by—and comprised exclusively of—men. In fact, as early as 1818—seven years before its ostensible founding in 1825—women were painting scenes of the Catskills and beyond in styles ascribed to the movement’s “founding fathers,” Asher Durand and Thomas Cole. Through painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, and site-specific...

Artwork