Artist Statementartist Statementatement

My explorations in contemporary portraiture concentrate on elucidating facets of human experiences in relation to psychological and physical environments. Relating to larger themes concerning identity and spectatorship, I attempt to weave together gesture, affect, and the nuisances of my subjects’ gaze, to create an immersive and emotional landscape for the viewer.

The human condition, contemporary portraiture, and the figure in the landscape are the direct base to my artistic practice. The seduction of the gaze, representations of desire, emotional turmoil, and physical awkwardness are themes that encapsulate my concerns as an artist. The ebb and flow of one’s psyche usually informs my work and allows me to construct psychological portraits that move beyond the physical properties of the image, into a more contemplative space.

The fragility of life in the context of narrative based work has been the focus of my artistic practice in the last few years. Through portraiture, I often portray my subjects immersed in their own enigmatic situation and emotional landscape. The solitary figure in each photograph offers a pensive gaze and subtle gesture that attempts to reveal an aspect of their interior worlds. Permeating through an emotive atmosphere, one can find these protagonists enacting their own quite drama, which has left them disturbingly calm, and comfortably numb.

I am interested in imagery that is compelling in its vulnerability and that is imbued with the greatest sensual, physical and psychological presence probing a range of corporal and cerebral experiences. Borrowing from cinematic strategies, I attempt to depict introspective poses that tell a story in order to make the viewer recognize that something emotional is unfolding. Through, physiognomy, expression, and the staging of the photographic scene, I try to capture the narrative potential of the image. 

Marisa Portolese