Isabella Rengfino was born in Venezuela twenty-five years ago. The young artist has found a peculiar way to express herself. Choosing aged recycled materials and the combination of hand embroidery and machine sewing, she creates a unique universe that reflects her imagination.
Figuration allows images from the artist’s intimate thoughts to come alive; this intimacy relates to her cultural background developed within the diversity and interaction of cultures in Latin America. Nevertheless, her own personal experiences are the main source of inspiration, which she defines as an “expression of my feminine identity, my dreams, my passions, and other icons that are so personal I prefer not to explain and to let people find their own interpretation.” She emphasizes that the recycled materials she uses are the medium to tell stories; each carries the presence of the past and retains its path.
The raw and the naive coexist in Rengifo’s unusual aesthetic: fragments of stained fabrics of all types—some of them already stained and others stained by the artist—the bleaching, the combination of different textures, and the graphic hand-stitched drawings that create such artificial, or plastic, richness. Her intention is to create crude constructions that reveal the absolute domain of the ancient embroidery technique. The self-portrait Autotrestratos shows the artist three times in a gesture of sewing that gives movement and a sense of time to the composition; in Agazaporea she represents a girl, a watermelon, and a goat—each with their corresponding alter egos.
Throughout her work, we notice how the artist specifically selects every fabric she uses: pieces from her grandmother’s closet, a bride’s dress from an aunt, or some material from an old sofa. But not all of these fabrics are antiques; some are brand-new. When making aesthetic choices, Rengfino follows this main idea of blending as the engine of her work to establish an all-encompassing personal code: intimate principles relate to the selection of materials and, once again, combine with universal life experiences.
Rengfino also intends to bond the contemporary with the traditional. The hybrid field she inhabits is characterized by the impossibility of defining or labeling her work as just painting or embroidery. Her use of mixed media gives the artist a specific plastic language that highlights the interaction between stains, drawings, and embroidery. Always trying to find the equilibrium, she structures the formal elements, colors, and textures to allow different characteristics to shine. A subtle harmony emerges with the final product that follows no logical pattern. Nothing is rigid or extremely formal; on the contrary, hazard becomes a relevant ingredient in the creative act. “I want to express freely and focus on the gestures; I don’t want any perfection, exactitude, or rigidness—that is why I use the combination of a . . . formal structure represented by the sewing machine and the informality represented in every handmade piece. My works look childish sometimes, and I think it relates to these choices I make; the result is a rustic artwork with an enormous, expressive potential within.”
Figuration allows images from the artist’s intimate thoughts to come alive; this intimacy relates to her cultural background developed within the diversity and interaction of cultures in Latin America. Nevertheless, her own personal experiences are the main source of inspiration, which she defines as an “expression of my feminine identity, my dreams, my passions, and other icons that are so personal I prefer not to explain and to let people find their own interpretation.” She emphasizes that the recycled materials she uses are the medium to tell stories; each carries the presence of the past and retains its path.
The raw and the naive coexist in Rengifo’s unusual aesthetic: fragments of stained fabrics of all types—some of them already stained and others stained by the artist—the bleaching, the combination of different textures, and the graphic hand-stitched drawings that create such artificial, or plastic, richness. Her intention is to create crude constructions that reveal the absolute domain of the ancient embroidery technique. The self-portrait Autotrestratos shows the artist three times in a gesture of sewing that gives movement and a sense of time to the composition; in Agazaporea she represents a girl, a watermelon, and a goat—each with their corresponding alter egos.
Throughout her work, we notice how the artist specifically selects every fabric she uses: pieces from her grandmother’s closet, a bride’s dress from an aunt, or some material from an old sofa. But not all of these fabrics are antiques; some are brand-new. When making aesthetic choices, Rengfino follows this main idea of blending as the engine of her work to establish an all-encompassing personal code: intimate principles relate to the selection of materials and, once again, combine with universal life experiences.
Rengfino also intends to bond the contemporary with the traditional. The hybrid field she inhabits is characterized by the impossibility of defining or labeling her work as just painting or embroidery. Her use of mixed media gives the artist a specific plastic language that highlights the interaction between stains, drawings, and embroidery. Always trying to find the equilibrium, she structures the formal elements, colors, and textures to allow different characteristics to shine. A subtle harmony emerges with the final product that follows no logical pattern. Nothing is rigid or extremely formal; on the contrary, hazard becomes a relevant ingredient in the creative act. “I want to express freely and focus on the gestures; I don’t want any perfection, exactitude, or rigidness—that is why I use the combination of a . . . formal structure represented by the sewing machine and the informality represented in every handmade piece. My works look childish sometimes, and I think it relates to these choices I make; the result is a rustic artwork with an enormous, expressive potential within.”
Maria Carolina Baulo
