Anna Di Mezza – Uncanny Valley

Solo Exhibition
Outré Gallery Fitzroy
12 August–4 September 

Anna Di Mezza is a painter who currently resides in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. Her works are surrealistic in nature, playing with perspective and combining subject matter with unexpected backgrounds resulting in bizarre visual narratives. Inspired by vintage photos, Anna likes to depict what appear to be stills from a surrealist film – challenging viewers to make up their own interpretation of the plot. Her paintings seem to straddle a fine line between humour and horror.

Artist Statement

My work could be described as being surrealistic in nature. I like playing around with perspective and combining subject matter with unexpected backgrounds resulting in bizarre visual narratives.

The work focuses on paintings based on found vintage photos which often includes a teasing visual narrative as if the images are from a frame from a film. The viewers are invited to make up the movie's plot in their own mind. I see my work as an analysis of today's social and psychological issues set within an historical context.

My inspiration comes from different sources, both visual and auditory. I am mesmerised by the beauty of Western popular culture of the 20th century, particularly the 1930s through to the 60s. I would consider my main influences to be Magritte, De Chirico, the Surrealist and Pop art movements as well as the filmmakers Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch. Their work often deals with the subconscious and what lies beneath the the surface—a theme which is something I aspire to in my own work.