Portraiture, representations of women, and figures in nature are recurrent subjects in Marisa Portolese’s artistic practice. Autobiography and familial and cultural heritage are equally prominent themes explored through the genre of storytelling, the narrative still and moving image. She often produces large-scale colour photographs, rich in painterly references that concentrate on elucidating facets of human experiences in relation to psychological and physical environments regarding identity and spectatorship. She attempts to weave together gesture, affect, and the nuances of the gaze to create an immersive and emotional landscape for the viewer. Since 2019, she has focused on Goose Village, a multidisciplinary project about a Montreal neighborhood mostly made of Italian and Irish immigrants demolished in 1964 for Expo 67. Via an autobiographical lens and through photography, video, installation, writing, and historical research sourced from family albums and institutional archives, she explores the lost history of Goose Village.
Website: http://www.marisaportolese.com
Instagram: @thegoosevillage
