Romina Ressia - Artsy - Feb 2015

Transcript of Romina Ressia - Artsy - Feb 2015

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ARTSY EDITORIAL20,022 FollowersNew York, NY, United States

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In a Clever Series of Self-Portraits, ArgentinePhotographer Romina RessiaReimagines the Renaissance

ARTSY EDITORIALA FEW SECONDS AGO

The works of 33-year-old Argentine photographer RominaRessia have recently become an internet sensation. She tookan unconventional path into the art world, studying financeand then set design, before producing the stylish andthought-provoking photo series that she’s now known for.

One series, “How would have been?,” is comprised ofstriking, often humorous images that pose unexpectedanachronisms. Ressia’s objectives are clear in the title, and inthe works themselves: in some of these photographs shereimagines classical 15th-century portraiture, casting herselfas the subject and inserting tangible objects fromcontemporary life into the frame, like microwave popcorn orbubblegum. In other pieces, the message is subtler, the scenedevoid of any trappings of the 21st century.

In Woman With Flowers (2014) and Oval Portrait (2014), forexample, Ressia holds conventional poses—if these weren’tcrisp archival pigment prints, they could almost be mistakenfor images actually captured in the Renaissance era. Themessage comes through in the expressions of the artistherself. At turns, she looks pained, bored, or even blank—seeBoring (2014)—and we can visualize what daily life was likefor young women of means centuries ago. The series raisestwo parallel questions: what would life have been like somany years ago if modern diversions had existed then? And,conversely, what would life be like for a modern womanwithin the confines and traditional expectations of the 15thcentury?

Ressia is refreshingly unpretentious about her process. “Ithink that the camera is just a tool,” she has said. “A goodphotographer can make a piece of art only with a plasticcamera or even with his mobile…the eye [is] what reallymatters.” Since leaving the finance world to pursue art,Ressia has also earned attention for her series “What Do YouHide?” (2015) in which she “dehumanizes” her femininesubjects in the colorful camouflage of printed and patternedfabrics, and for her series “Not About Death” (2014) inwhich she frames her elderly subjects, clad in superherocostumes, lying in coffins. Another series, “RenaissanceCubism,” is a playful mash-up of Renaissance portraiture andCubism. Picking up on a theatrical edge? It’s no wonder:Ressia studied art direction and set design at the famousTeatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

—Bridget Gleeson

Discover more artists at Arcadia ContemporaryDiscover more artists at Arcadia Contemporary..

"Popcorn", 2014

SOLD

"Boring" , 2014

Double Bubble Gum, 2015

"Woman With Flowers" , 2014

"Oval Portrait" , 2014

"Black Box" , 2014

"Skull" , 2014

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Romina Ressia