Seated Ballet. Mounted on aluminum, 2010

Efren Isaza   Emerging artists

Seated Ballet. Mounted on aluminum. Archival pigment print mounted on aluminum intervened by the artist. 

Signed, titled, dated and annotated on verso by the artist 

This artwork presents a striking black-and-white image of a seated figure, enveloped in abstract overlays of dynamic brushstrokes and geometric patterns. The figure, poised in a classical, almost balletic costume, contrasts sharply with the modern, chaotic energy of the surrounding lines. The textured brushstrokes add depth and movement, evoking a sense of tension between tradition and contemporary expression. The monochromatic palette emphasizes form and shadow, while the strategic placement of angular elements gives the piece a fragmented, yet harmonious appearance. This juxtaposition creates a layered narrative, exploring themes of identity and transformation. The composition's compelling blend of photography and abstract art techniques highlights the fluid boundaries between reality and abstraction, making it an engaging visual experience.

Seated Ballet by Efren Isaza 65 x 48 Inches .Archival pigment print mounted on aluminum, intervened by the artist .Signed, titled, dated and annotated by the artist on verso

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 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 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.