BERARDO COLLECTION AQUISITION

I am pleased to announce that my work, The Banquet, has been acquired by the Berardo Collection, one of the most significant collections of modern and contemporary art in Europe. Founded by José Berardo, the collection features iconic works by artists such as Picasso, Miró, Mondrian, and Warhol, spanning major movements like Cubism, Surrealism, and Pop Art.

Banquet employs a unique physi-digital technique that integrates painting, photography, and printmaking to merge the reclining nude with Dutch still life imagery. This fusion highlights societal gender norms and the objectification of women by transforming the body into another object within the banquet, alongside meat, fruits, feathers, and mirrors.

Each item serves as a signifier: flowers, like lilies, blend sexual and funerary connotations; the apple hints at original sin; the peach, a modern symbol through emojis, adds a contemporary twist. Meat symbolizes mortality and objectification, while the rabbit, traditionally a signifier of hope, now appears foetal and skinned. Feathers suggest disturbance.

The body, posed in a classic pin-up stance with blood-red fingernails, blurs the lines between predator and prey. This symbolism resonates with the themes of life and death often found in Dutch still lifes, while also prompting reflection on society’s deep-seated anxieties and contradictions surrounding the female body.