Vienne Rea is an American-born visual artist who presents her work in international, national, and regional exhibitions and galleries. Her creativity is expressed through multi-disciplinary visual arts—primarily, photography and sculpture. She prefers to work in themed series in both art forms.
Having been a fine art photographer for over thirty-five years, Vienne Rea's work has exhibited at such notable places as the Austrian Embassy in Washington D.C. and the Foto Biennale in Berlin, Germany. The expressive storytelling in her work is both compelling and sensitive. Her chosen photography themes are emotionally-derived, either based on direct personal experience or stemming from a compassionate response to another's personal history. Previous photographic themes she has explored include: The Holocaust of WWII, African-American Slavery, Childhood, Divinity, the Collective Feminine. The artist has several new themes forthcoming. Through the use of digital and analog photography, Rea creates imagery closely reminiscent of the Pictorialist style of late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her “signature” blur—which was once shamefully criticized by an art school professor, has become a distinguished feature of her photography. The intentional use of blur enriches the narrative whether it relates anguish, strength, confinement, struggle, or the opposite emotional spectrum of joy, tenderness, sovereignty, or serenity. Powerful composition, stylized toning, poetic light and shadow serve to further enhance the storytelling that distinguishes Rea’s photographic works. Inevitably, the viewer is drawn into the narrative. Led there by some momentary relationship in which the viewer may take pause and then emerge, often feeling as if they had been inside an old memory– one of their own or that of another.
As a sculptor, Vienne Rea innovatively uses a wide variety of materials and hardware to create contemporary sculpture, which has become The Ladder Series. In her early sculpting career, Rea used assemblage techniques with metal, acrylic, and distinctive hardware to bolt, lace, and drill onto paintings and her photographs to create a third dimension. In 2013, Rea's pursuits in sculpture turned to the single theme—Ladders—which had come to her in a dream. Fueled by this new inspiration, she sought a mentor to guide her in metal welding which beneficially led her to the renowned sculptor David Hess. Today, combining traditional and non-traditional materials and using a wide array of sculpting techniques, the artist continues to expand on her captivating theme. The use of ladder-as-symbol has developed a means for her expression of autobiographical and biographical storytelling. However, this universal theme does elicit one's own personal associations and self-derived interpretations, making Rea's sculpture quite engaging.
Memberships:
American Society of Media Photographers
Professional Women Photographers
American Women Artists
Women's Photo Alliance
Maryland Federation of Art
National Sculpture Society
Washington Sculptors Group
Texas Photographic Society
The Center for Fine Art Photography
