ALEXANDRA FONGARO
Biography: Alexandra Fongaro is an Italian-American figurative oil and watercolor painter born and raised in a New Jersey suburb. She studied at Pratt and Parsons the New School, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2015. She is currently pursuing her Master's in Painting at the Rome University of Fine Arts, Italy.
Photo Credit: Anastasia Tomasi
Artist's Statement:
I do not actively pursue subjects, the muses make themselves apparent to me, in my dreams and my reality. They may be unable to distinguish these realms and exist in between in the context of a painting. I am a medium in which they guide and my experiences and desires lend themselves to what they wish to communicate. They are concerned with fragments and my perception fixes itself on a single point: a hip, a flower, a tile and often matter ceases to exist past these points- there is a void, uncertainty, or world that exists outside the painted subject.
I explore the translation and symbiosis of traditional media into digital media in my work, by establishing a common ground of visual stimulus, yet relying on their inherent differences to create two unique experiences: the analog and digital. Movement is the unifying motif that guides this exploration. It may present itself through the discovery of a collection of movements specified in time, through frames or animation, or the transformative experience of the viewer moving around the work itself. Even when creating two dimensional works, the application of the paint and how its quality changes, by moving physically around it as the viewer, is always considered.
The work is an extension of, and inspired by, the “unfinished” and the “unsaid” of both the European traditions of painting and abstraction. I compose my paintings with some figurative reference, with partial references to volume and color in how I perceive them to exist in reality, with exaggeration, embellished by the void or negative space they are often situated in. This serves as a reminder of the material quality of the work and an invitation for the viewer to fill the space with their own projected images. Controlling or creating this figurative aspect, as well as abandoning it, plays a significant role in the work, as the techniques implored with watercolor and oil, mimic this in the moments of tight, “real” representation versus the chance of allowing watercolor to flow or oil paint to smudge in moments of trust between artist and media.
Exhibitions & Grants:
Piazze Romane Grant, Rome, Italy 2021
Povos Chicago, Illinois 2021
Palazzo Ducale Genova, Italy 2020
Nocturnal Pop Montclair, New Jersey 2018
LINM Jersey City, New Jersey 2018
Can-O-Paint New Brunswick, New Jersey 2017
Industry City Brooklyn, New York 2015
Los Perros Locos New York, New York 2015
Art Kitchen Newark, New Jersey 2013