Marisa Aragona

Website: www.marisaaragona.com

Artist statement:
My photographs intend to question themes around beauty and belonging as they relate to identity, the body and personal\domestic space. I work with richly textured fabrics, color and clutter to fill the photographic frame in order to emphasize excess. Within this excess I wish to express one's search for a sense of belonging. I photograph both myself and others in their homes during periods of isolation and transition. In doing this, I wish to reveal a character in the midst of confusion, transition, chaos or even adventure. In these photos, I choose to obscure and dramatize the figure's action or gesture. By withholding identity as defined by the face, I intend to create a psychological space or imagined identity. I wish to express an ambiguous and gendered figure in order to look at desire and the search for one's identity buried deep within excess.

Bio:
Marisa Aragona's photo-based work and installations have been exhibited in New York, San Francisco, Oakland, Washington DC and Seattle, among other cities nationally. Recent venues include Steven Wolf Fine Arts, Mission 17, Photographic Center Northwest, and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Her photographs will be published in The Photo Review this year and as a Photo Review Place Winner will participate in the exhibition "Best of Show" at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Marisa received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2005 and her BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York in 2000. Currently she is teaching photography courses at the University of California at Berkeley. Marisa lives and works in San Francisco.