Madison Gowins

I create surreal digital collages using vintage imagery as a foundation, building compositions that feel both nostalgic and otherworldly. I’m drawn to the quiet beauty of old photographs and advertisements, but I’m less interested in preserving them as they were and more interested in transforming them—placing them in environments that feel impossible, cinematic, and dreamlike. My work often incorporates space and surreal elements as a way to explore distance—between past and present, reality and imagination. There’s a sense of familiarity in each piece, but also something slightly off, as if the image exists just outside of what we know to be real. Through this process, I aim to create work that feels like a memory you can’t quite place—something both comforting and strange at the same time.