Real Art Ways presents
MARGARIDA CORREIA
SAUDADE

November 17 – December 11, 2005
Opening Reception Thursday, November 17, 6-9 PM

HARTFORD, CT: November 7, 2005 – Real Art Ways will present Portuguese artist Margarida Correia‘s exhibition Saudade, in Real Art Ways’ Real Room from Thursday, November 17 through Sunday, December 11, 2005. Correia is one of six artists selected from a pool of 200 in Real Art Way’s juried competition for emerging artists, called NEXT. The exhibition opens at Real Art Ways’ Creative Cocktail Hour, Thursday, November 17 from 6-9 pm. Real Art Ways is at 56 Arbor Street in Hartford. Admission to the reception is $5 / free for Real Art Ways members. For more information, call 860-232-1006.

Saudade, which translates to a yearning for something one is fond of, specifically, something which is gone, and may or may not return in the future. Documenting the emotional trajectory of familial relics, Correia’s photography addresses the connection to the past as experienced through personal objects culled from family history. She works in triptychs. Each is comprised of three photographs: one is of a piece of clothing handed down from a previous generation, another is a photo of an old photo showing an ancestor – e.g., father, grandmother – wearing the article of clothing, and the third photo is of the present subject wearing the clothing.

Correia’s photographs bring to the fore the sentimental importance of the clothing to the present owner. “These triptychs evoke different levels of time and forms of photographic representation, and the relationship between a person and a parent as embodied in objects,” says Correia.

Correia recently earned her MFA in Photography and Related Media at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. It was Correia’s move from Lisbon to New York that spurred the work featured in this show. Here, Correia constructs her parallel vision of two different realities with subjects from Portugal and New York.

“Margarida Correia creates a special kind of visual storytelling which imaginatively and uniquely combines vernacular, still life, and portrait photography,” remarks W.M. Hunt, Director of Photography at the Ricco | Maresca Gallery. Says Real Art Ways Executive Director Will K. Wilkins, “We are especially pleased to be presenting Margarida’s work in Parkville because of our vibrant Portuguese population,”

An artist-in-residence at the Center for Photography at Woodstock in summer 2005, Correia also received the Aaron Siskind Award in 2003. Currently, her work is represented in several private and public collections in Europe and the USA.

Real Art Ways is one of the United States’ leading “alternative spaces,” with an emphasis on supporting living artists, and building community. Real Art Ways programs include visual arts, cinema, music, performance, spoken word, and public projects. Real Art Ways was founded in 1975, and has been in Hartford’s Parkville neighborhood since 1989.