The Way Things Are: Bea Fresno

The things are there. Every day "things", objects, an eye, a hand holding a baby lizard, nothing spectacular, that which most people would pass by without noticing. It takes an artist, with an eye for the relevance of the domestic and the well known, to turn these into the subject of photography.  I personally appreciate art that draws its inspiration from what there is at hand, the way Chardin or Vermeer did in their time.

A plate of cherries on a newspaper, a figure walking on a bridge against a cloudy sky, a stroller in a corner in an indefinite bare room.  Some images are blurred.  Is this because the artist questions her perception, as she does in the text introducing this portfolio?  Low keyed and austere simplicity are the norm in Bea Fresno's work. She seems to have matched the feeling of dispossession in which her generation learnt their craft as artists in her native Argentina, to the down to earth Dutch spirit in the Netherlands, where she has lived most of her adult life.