Raffaella Descalzi
Bio
Raffaella Descalzi (Quito, 1990) is a visual artist based in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Her multidisciplinary practice investigates the conflicts that emerge at the boundaries of matter, where resistance and vulnerability are in constant tension. Through sculptural processes and the recurrent use of materials such as cement, ceramics, wood, bronze, and glass, her work displaces hierarchies between the solid and the fragile, challenging traditional notions of permanence, strength, and decay.
From a critical perspective on the relationship between human beings and nature, her work is articulated through living forms that persist, erode, and transform structures that appear stable or are already in a state of ruin.
She has undertaken international artist residencies in Mexico and Spain. Her work has been exhibited in Ecuador, Mexico, the United States, Canada, and Spain. She studied Contemporary Art at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (2014) and obtained a Master’s degree in Artistic Production from the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain (2016).
Statement
My name is Raffaella Descalzi, and I am a visual artist. My work consistently questions the romanticism and idealism that have historically surrounded nature, both as an exotic space and as a symbol of femininity. Far from a realistic, scientific, or botanical representation of the flower, my practice is conceived as an exercise in reflection on landscape and its relationship to individual memory, as well as an analysis of the tensions that emerge between those who inhabit it, the concepts constructed around it, and the language that names it.
Through materials such as concrete, ceramics, glass, and bronze, I explore the transformation of matter and the confrontation between different bodies. I am interested in questioning and redefining what we categorize as “hard” and what we understand as “fragile,” generating a dialogue between oppositions. Within this process, my work oscillates between an intimate and personal discourse and its expansion into the public sphere, finding resonance across both territories.
2.5 x 4m / 98.4 x 157 in
