ROLF ART PRESENTS AN ANTHOLOGICAL EXHIBITION OF ADRIANA LESTIDO'S WORK

The exhibition project brings together her most emblematic photographic essays and iconic works, consolidating in the gallery the beginning of her practice up to her last body of work, present in multiple institutions.

Adriana Lestido has dedicated the last 40 years to contemplate and capture without imposture the daily conflicts of the human being. From the feminine gaze or the notable masculine absence, with a direct and testimonial aesthetic, impelled by the vital force of the necessity that was gestated from her own experiences, the artist tries to understand from her own history, the others, those of nature and those of the world. Everything happens by itself. And in that happening, the artist searches to see something else.

The exhibition project gather together her essays and iconic works –Madre e Hija de Plaza de Mayo (Mother and Daughter of Plaza de Mayo, 1982); Mujeres Presas (Imprisoned Women, 1991-1993); a selection of Madres Adolescentes (Adolescent Mothers, 1988-1990); Madres e Hijas (Mothers and Daughters, 1995-1998); Metrópolis (1888-1999) and La Antártida (2012)– revealing the complex universe of essential bonds, showing their shades and complexities, as well as the feelings and emotions that summon, in their most honest and raw essence, light and darkness; the timeless game of existence captured with an unusual humanism and sensitivity.

“What makes Adriana Lestido’s work so unusual and mysterious is the nature of her (the photographer’s) presence. What we see happening – existing – she achieves as if she had not been there. No one gives the impression of being photographed. And yet, at the same time, each image has been chosen and conceived with so much love and compassion. Adriana is absolutely there, with that and those she is photographing, and yet she is not there at all!”. John Berger.

Adriana Lestido began her studies in photography in 1979, at the at the Avellaneda School of Audio-visual Arts. Between 1982 and 1995 she worked as a photojournalist for the newspaper La Voz, the Agency DyN and for the newspaper Página 12. Among numerous awards Lestido was the first Argentine photographer to receive the Guggenheim Grant-award (1995) and Hasselblad award (1991), and the Mother Jones award (1997). She received the prize to the trajectory (2021, National Academy of Fine Arts), Grand Acquisition Award of the National Photography Salon (2009), Lifetime Achievement Award (Argentine Association of Art Critics, 2009) and Outstanding Personality of Culture by the Legislature of CABA (2010), among others. She also was awarded with the Konex Award in 2002 and received the Konex Platino in 2022. She has made the photo-essays Antártida (Antarctic, 2012), México (2010), El amor (Love, 1992- 2005), Madres e hijas (Mothers and daughters, 1995-1998), Mujeres Presas (Imprisoned women, 1991-1993), Madres Adolescentes (Adolescent mothers, 1988- 1990) and Hospital Infanto Juvenil (Children ́s hospital, 1986-1988) & Metrópolis (1988-1999). She is the author of eight books. Her latest publication, Metrópolis (Ediciones Larivère / RM, Madrid, 2021), was selected as the best book at PhotoEspaña 2022 and for the Prix du Livre Arles 2022. She also published Antártida negra (Capital Intelectual, 2017), Antártida negra. The diaries (Tusquets, 2017), Lo Que Se Ve, Fotografías 1992/2005 (What Can Be Seen 1992/2005, published by Capital Intelectual, 2012), La Obra (The Work by Capital Intelectual, 2011), Interior (Capital Intelectual, 2010), Mothers and daughters (La Azotea Editorial, 2003, with the support of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation) and Mujeres presas (Imprisoned Women, Argentine Photographers Collection, 1st edition 2001, 2nd edition 2008).

Donde todo empieza. Adriana Lestido.

Until September 29th, 2023.

Rolf Art. 1353 Esmeralda St., City of Buenos Aires, Argentina.