Anabela Pinto
Anabela Pinto
Plus VAT if applicable
Blue shower, 2020
Archival pigment print
90cm x 120cm, 60cm x 80cm
1/3 + 2 AP
£1400, £1050
About this work
Objects, but more specifically technological objects are vehicles of a presence that exists around and within us. This was the premise with which the artist started this body of work, thinking about how these objects operate in the domestic space, and what sort of relationships are fostered between human beings and these inanimate (yet so reactive) objects of desire, whose effect is underpinned in aesthetic demeanours. Baudrillard writes how the system of objects is the embodiment of satisfaction and disillusion; how we find in objects an ambition to act as replacements for human relationships. Seemingly appearing to solve a mere practical problem, they subconsciously aim to resolve a social or psychological conflict. The TV screen automatically becomes central to this exploration. Its ubiquity in the domestic space, its physical characteristics that often resemble a window or portal to another world, and its relationship to the human eye makes it probably the most obvious container or source of this technological ‘presence’ as well as the object whose nature is pronouncedly more human. The blue light emanating from the screen permeates the scenes and reiterates this presence, harbouring the delights of artificiality, the promise of a more in-tune experience.
The series Precious Things is an observation of the cult of technology as an extension of the human psyche, where consumer objects appear to channel, reflect, and feed on the emotions of its users. Steeped in nostalgia, home electronics become the main subjects in open-ended narratives that incite the imagination of the viewer, while speaking of an ever-evolving and ambiguous relationship, the human closeness to technological objects of desire, our precious things.
About Anabela Pinto
Anabela Pinto is a Portuguese artist and photographer living in London. She recently obtained her MA Photography at the Royal College of Art in 2020, and has a BA in Audiovisual Communication from the Porto Polytechnic Institute received in 2008. Her practice reflects an interest in the relationship between people and technologies, consumer culture and desire, and its subsequent effect on the aesthetics of our daily living surroundings.
Through the use of color and light, props and objects of interest, Pinto’s current work plays with the potential of mise-en-scène and explores the narrative qualities and possibilities of the photographic image. The constructed scenes hover between the visual tropes of the cinematic language and those concerning commercial photography sensibilities. Her work has been exhibited internationally at venues including Les Rencontres d’Arles and Photo LA, with her first solo show having recently taken place at Galerie Intervalle in Paris. She has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards including the Dior Photography Award for Young Talents and the Life Framer Series Award. In 2020 her work is included in the annual publication Fresh Eyes by GUP Magazine. She holds an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art.
Education
2020 Royal College of Art, London, MA Photography
2008 Porto Polytechnic Institute, BA Audiovisual Communication
Awards and Prizes
2020 FRESH EYES talent, powered by GUP
2020 Focus photo L.A. finalist
2019 PHmuseum Women Photography Grant - Fotografia Europea Prize shortlisted
2019 International Photography Grant Nominee
2019 Life Framer Series Award Winner
2019 Life Framer Open Call, Honorable Mention
2019 Dior Photography Award for Emerging Talents Laureate
2018 PDN Eight Annual Exposure Award Winner
2018 EI Discovery Awards shortlist
2018 Kolga Award, Best Conceptual Series Finalist
2016 Renaissance Photography Prize Finalist
2016 10th Arte Laguna Prize - Photographic Art Finalist
Solo Exhibitions
2020 Galerie Intervalle, Paris
Group Exhibitions
2020 IBGYBG, The Function Suite, London
2020 With Fists, It Kicks, It Bites, Edel Assanti, London
2020 RCA2020, Royal College of Art degree show (online)
2020 Nuit de la Photo, La Chaux-de-Fonds
2020 Focus photo l.a., Photo LA, Los Angeles
2019 Dior: The Art of Color, KOSMO, Paris
2019 Life Framer Edition V, Bermondsey Project Space, London
2019 Dior: The Art of Color, Les Rencontres de la Photographie d'Arles
2019 WIP Show, Royal College of Art, London
2018 Encontros da Imagem (projection), Braga
2018 Kolga Tbilisi Photo, Tbilisi
2018 Just in Time, PH21 Gallery, Budapest
2016 Renaissance Photography Prize, Getty Images Gallery, London
2016 10th Arte Laguna Prize, Arsenale of Venice, Venice
2015 Color Photography: A Picture Show, Black Box Gallery, Portland
2013 The Story of the Creative, See.Me Gallery, New York
2013 The Story of the Creative, Angel Orensanz Foundation, New York
2008 Linha 08, Museu do Carro Eléctrico, Porto