A theater lives within Jo Ann Callis’s photographs, paintings and sculptures. The artist’s constructed scenes reinterpret reality, inserting pleasure and tension into the everyday. Less concerned with merely the straight aesthetic of an image, Callis conjures incredibly expressive scenes, which center on the physical sensations experienced by the models photographed and the emotions embedded in their interior states.
While many of her photographs carry a playful sensibility, Callis also dives into dynamics of unease: she stages scenes– an office, for example–photographing a progression of charged scenarios as two models move distantly around one another. The office-like furniture and clothing subtly suggest an underlying dynamic of power and submission. While natural light tenderly floods into images of a girl in bed (think Northern Renaissance paintings), flood lights heighten the drama in others. These staged scenes visually perform and deconstruct the complex social and gender dynamics that Callis examines throughout her work. As this body of work from the 1970’s parallels the enigmatic arrangements of Callis's Early Color portfolio, the figures and spaces continue the artist’s pursuit of internal emotional expression.
Early Color was originally photographed in 1975-76. The series was reprinted in 2012 and with the assistance of ROSEGALLERY.
All Early Color prints are priced at $7,500.