Doyenne of all things digital, Carla Gannis is the artist who, notoriously, “translated” Hieronymus Bosch into Emoji a couple of years ago, a project reviewed in these pages. She manages simultaneously to channel Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Kosuth and Cindy Sherman in her animated self-portrait video, Nude Descending a Staircase. It is the centerpiece of a show she titles after Kosuth’s 1966 neon sculpture, A Subject Self-Defined. For many years Gannis has used her “self” in conceptually and perceptually disrupted avatars as a disembodied presence in the cyber realm, often exploiting the psychologically disruptive relationship between physical and virtual supports. Her Bushwick show features examples from her collection of 52 digital drawings collected in the volume due to be published March 5, “Carla Gannis: The Selfie Drawings.” As befits an artist fearless in wading into the divide between digital media and hand-made modes of expression, she appears unfazed in her marine descent.
Carla Gannis, Nude Descending a Staircase, 2015. 4K video, 3:37. Courtesy of the Artist. On view through March 12. Transfer, open Saturdays and by appointment, is at 1030 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211
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