Frida Kahlo's face, with her dark, furrowed brows, peers out at the viewer from different scenes; her hair is artfully knotted on her head. A framed archival pigment print mounted on aluminum, intervened with hand-applied paint, ink, and intentionally scratched by the artist. This one-of-a-kind intervened artwork, produced in 2009 and 2010, marks Isaza's artistic shift from traditional fashion photography to fine art. It was at this time that Isaza began to explore beyond the camera lens through the process of applying physical interventions to her printed images, utilizing paint, crayon, tape, graphite, and other unconventional materials. This mixed-media process provided an avenue for her to explore photography on a more developed scale, allowing space for her female subjects to be represented with a heightened sense of grandeur.This vibrant artwork is a striking fusion of surrealism and pop art. A woman with starkly contrasting black-and-white skin reclines on a brightly colored, intricate background. She wears a chic grey dress with a bold red sash, her high heels adding elegance. The backdrop explodes with oversized tropical leaves and vivid shapes, creating an otherworldly setting. A small table with fruit and a blue plant pot enhance the scene with pops of orange and blue. The meticulous placement of each element invites viewers into a whimsical, dreamlike world where eclectic patterns and vibrant hues converge. The artist's unique style is embodied in the playful yet sophisticated composition, blurring the lines between reality and imagination.
Colored Frida Kahlo, 2010. Mixed Media
Colored Frida, 2010
Archival pigment print Intervened with hand-applied paint, and ink and intentionally scratched by the artist. Framed
Dimensions: 34 H x 53.5 W in.
Unique
Mounted on aluminum
Efren Isaza, one of Colombia’s most influential fashion photographers, initially studied fashion design. He united his interest in fashion with one of his earliest passions: photography. Graceful female figures lounge in fashionable poses. Paper costumes that seem borrowed from Oskar Schlemmer’s triadic ballet make the ballerinas look like marionettes.
Their dislocation recalls the puppets Hans Bellmer featured in his surreal photographic experiments. Frida Kahlo’s face with her dark, furrowed eyebrows, peers at the viewer out of different scenes; her hair is knotted artfully on her head.The allusions evoked in the imaginative creations of Colombian Fashion photographer Isaza are diverse: he cites and alienates an arsenal of styles before melding them into new compositions OF ONE OF A KIND LIMITED EDITION ARTWORK. It might be a certain scene, a poem, a petal of a flower, or the idea of a person that inspires a new work. His passion for breaking the boundaries of traditional fashion photography is palpable in each of Isaza’s unique works. He is less concerned with fashion than the image, the play of contrasts and the magic and the emotions sometimes saturnine,sometimes buoyant, sometimes surreal, and yet always beguiling that the image transports.
