Me in The Art World (2016)
Oil and marker on canvas
100.5 x 81.5 cm
BA Collection
Inventory No.: 2016.337.1
We live in a hypermedia age, in which we do not control the images and information to which we are exposed. Gala Knörr’s art is based on a questioning of this contemporary reality. Painting is a tool of resistance for her, due to the way it has prevailed in the history of art and because it is a physical object in the face of the ephemeral nature of the thousands of images that are consumed daily.
Me in the art world is a piece based on the logic of images on social networks, using Snapchat, an application in which all information shared lasts 24 hours. Gala changes the functionality of the image by altering its original platform (social media) and its space (the web) to give it materiality on the canvas and a space on the walls. In this specific work, the text included seems to be a self-referential text, but it is actually a publication by a New York artist who alluded to the lack of racial diversity in the art world. By capturing these images in a less perishable medium of representation such as painting, Gala tries to counteract the hypnotic effects of the constant circulation of images and propose a pause that leads to a new story, and an expansion of its meaning.
Gala Knörr (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 1984) is an artist and researcher. After studying at Central Saint Martins (UK) and Parsons Paris (France), she was appointed to the Frank Bidart Chair at California State University Bakersfield (2025), in conjunction with Etxepare Basque Institute. Her mainly pictorial works reflects on the power of images and their impact on the collective conscience.