Vanessa Tropeano
Born in Concord, MA. Received an M.F.A. from Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA and a B.A. from Northeastern University, Boston, MA . Lives and works in Lexingto , MA .
Recent solo exhibitions at Chase Gallery , Boston , MA ; and AAA Gallery, New York , NY.
Participated in group exhibitions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum, Boston, MA; Space Other, Boston, MA; Clifford Smith Gallery, Boston, MA; Mission Hill Foyer Gallery, Boston, MA; Curry Gallery, Northeastern University, Boston, MA; and Juniper Gallery, New York, NY.
The question of truth in photography has been a topic of discussion for some time now. Photographers have always been able to manipulate images in their camera and in the darkroom, and their decisions about what to photograph, when to take the picture, and how to frame it determine how the resulting image is read. Many contemporary photographers further confuse truth and fiction by either manipulating their images digitally, or, as is the case in Vanessa Tropeano’s large, sensuous, color photographs, staging their photographs to create open-ended narrative scenes. It may seem odd to describe Tropeano’s images as narratives, since most of them do not include people and therefore look more like landscape or still-life images. Instead, as our eyes travel across each photograph, we notice subtle clues, like a woman’s high heel shoes in the fire, a branch stretching onto the ice, upside-down feet at the very bot tom of an expanse of white sky, a ring on the table in the otherwise pristine dining room. In these constructed tableaus, Tropeano recreates stories from her family’s history, whether true, apocryphal, or somewhere in between. And even though we may not know the source of the story, we are caught up in the allure and mystery of these ordinary yet perplexing places.
-Rachel Rosenfield Lafo, Director of Curatorial Affairs
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I live in the house I grew up in, in the town of Lexington , Massachusetts , where my family has lived since 1892.
My work deals with memory and history—how memory is informed by history and how history is constructed by memory. The on-going series Myths and Histories/ Myths or Histories is an investigation of family through storytelling. Through interviews, research, and my own memory I uncover secrets and re-enact them for the camera. Performance and meditation are essential components of this work; the camera is the vessel through which I realize the realities of dark and humorous pasts.
-Vanessa Tropeano
Image: Vanessa Tropeano, Caroline, 2007, C-print mounted on aluminum, 6’ x 8’, Lent by the Artist
Meet the Artist: Vanessa Tropeano
Tropeano will discuss her work in The 2008 DeCordova Annual
Museum Galleries
Saturday, June 21 at 3 pm
FREE with Campus admission
