Artist: WANDA BERNARDINO

Following a years residency at the Florence Trust in 1999-2000, Wanda Bernardino participated in national and international competitions and was short-listed and participated in the Celeste and Hunting Art Prizes. Born in Portugal she now lives in London where she is a keen member and participant of the Salon, a forum for current contemporary discussions between international artists, critics, art-dealers and collectors. Bernardino’s work was recently selected for exhibition with the House of St. Barnabus. Her enigmatic portraits deliberately copy, rework and recreate individuals from historic paintings. In seeking an elusive connection with the past she uncovers the processes behind the original and transcribes marks across time. She blanks out the subjects faces after having painted them to force the observer to re-examine the attribute of identity we ascribe to portraiture. One might see such an act as vandalism but it explores aesthetic, social, political and moral attitudes we hold toward both art and representations of history.