Ann Craven: Animals, Birds, Flowers, Moons

Book excerpt: A panorama of painterly motifs, combined and reprised Ann Craven (born 1972) superimposes source photographs, historical works and her own paintings, creating mediated images that feature layer upon layer of referentiality--a collage of her most treasured curios. Peacocks showcase their plumage; birds perch on a branch; a trio of horses pose "just so." Through these acts of creation and recreation, Craven becomes both master and copyist, citing herself in her own art historical lineage. Animals, birds, flowers, moons: Craven's motifs are in themselves an incantation--a wish to repeat, reencounter, relive. In keeping with this process of revisitation, Craven's paintings are repeated in threes throughout this fully illustrated catalog, mimicking the tripartite structure of her Animals Birds Flowers Moonsexhibition. The book is divided into three parts, each paired with one of three texts: two newly commissioned essays by Durga Chew-Bose and Keith Mayerson, and a 2021 interview between Craven and Lois Dodd.