Photo by Marcieline Novatore
Isabella Saavedra is an artist based in Portland, Oregon.
Her work documents significant moments through painting and stitchwork. By highlighting identity, memory, and daydream, she hones in on vulnerable interiorities and documents her lived experience - a theme she refers to as her “now-isms”. “Now-isms” describes the immediate yet examined way that she react and responds to life and is embedded with the philosophy of visual sovereignty.
The abstracted figures, settings and texts in the works assert their presence but are not recognizable for the viewer to recall or acknowledge. Allusions to the personal and intimate juxtaposed with the refusal to reenact and an ambivalence towards recognizability evokes a sense of controlled chaos.