Comments

Provocative. Compelling. Gutsy. The monumental collages of Anne Kesler Shields are all of this and more. …Decidedly postmodern, Shields's collages comprise appropriated images, selectively combined in ways that reinterpret the past, recontextualize the present, and help define the future. …Shields's work demands dialogue. The artist presents poignant symbols in multiple contexts. Such work intentionally provokes the viewer, stirring emotion and challenging belief systems about politics and religion, patriotism and war, tolerance and respect.

– Melissa G. Post (Curator, Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte) in Crosscurrents: Art, Craft. and Design in North Carolina, N. C. Museum of Art catalog, 2005

The strong impact of Shields' installation derives from her skillful orchestration of its key components – namely its epic scale, arresting imagery and strategic juxtapositions, which often ironically highlight coincidences of posture, gesture and compostion among the photos and various details….

– Tom Patterson, Winston-Salem Journal, May 14, 2000

Shield's installation in the Turchin Center is the latest example of a collage-based artistic strategy she has been developing since the early 1990s, built on the idea of juxtaposing art-historical imagery with still photos from contemporary magazines and newspapers, typically on a billboard-size scale. In a recent interview she said she wants her work to demonstrate the continuing relevance of great art from the past, and the fascination that certain types of imagery continue to hold for viewers over the centuries….The juxtapositions emphasize striking similarities between Bosch's imagery and the imagery of our media-saturated world, including sexually provocative ads and gruesome war scenes.

– Tom Patterson, Winston-Salem Journal, April 8, 2007

You and I probably see more pictures in one day than a person living in the nineteenth century saw in a lifetime!...I attempt to put some order into the visual clutter. By comparing contemporary advertising and news photographs with images from art history, we see that human passions change little through the ages and from one culture to another.

– Anne Kesler Shields