Williams College Museum of Art Presents
Karin Stack: Idylls
July 14–September 16, 2007

Williamstown, MA–The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) presents Karin Stack: Idylls, on view July 14 through September 16, 2007. In Stack's photography beautiful birds rest in trees in full spring bloom, a man stands on a cliff overlooking the sea in a moment of solitary contemplation, and a snake coils in rough, red-soil terrain. But look again and then again. All is not what it appears in the images of Karin Stack, who photographs elaborate tableaux that combine models, paintings, and both real and photographed landscapes. Drawn from art history—we find references to Romanticism, for example—as well as from contemporary visual sources, Stack’s photographs are both delightful and perplexing, stimulating and confounding.

Karin Stack: Idylls presents a selection of her recent photographic work, including many images that are making their debut in this exhibition, as well as a new work in video. Stack is well known for constructing visible worlds which seem to slide back and forth between being recognizable and alien and her recent creations will further this reputation. In some, her artifice is readily apparent while in others we are never quite sure. Her video, a digital animation that includes music she produced specifically, amplifies these themes. Like visual folktales, these photographs reveal just how mysterious even our most familiar surroundings can be and like a fabulist in the best sense, Stack reveals that the line between the knowable and the unknowable is much finer than we imagine.

Karin Stack: Idylls is a part of WCMA’s annual Summer Regional Artists Series and is organized by the artist and John Stomberg, Deputy Director and Senior Curator for Exhibitions at the Williams College Museum of Art.

About the Artist

Stack earned her BA in Studio Art from Wesleyan University and a MFA in Printmaking from Colorado State University. She has taught at Amherst, Wellesly, and Mount Holyoke colleges and lectures often on her own art. The subject of several solo exhibitions, she was recently featured in “Model Citizens: Giant Size,” an exhibition that explored the significance of model-making in contemporary art.

Related Activities

The artist will give a talk about her exhibition at the museum on Tuesday, July 31 at 2:00 pm. All are invited to attend.

Publicity Images Available

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