lena viddo - swanography

Lena Viddo

Lena Viddo is an American born artist of Swedish-Colombian descent. She grew up in and around Washington DC and later moved to New York City to pursue her passion for art. She received her BA in Illustration and Fine Art from F.I.T. State University of New York. She later attended the Polimoda in Florence, Italy where she studied Renaissance painting techniques. Viddo’s paintings are complex narratives that critique modern life, materialism and mankind’s obsession with greed, lust for power and fascination with celebrity. Upon closer inspection, the viewer is drawn into a surrealistic natural world that is indifferently cruel. Viddo’s fascination with mother nature and it’s hold over all creatures great and small is central to her deeper exploration. Her attempt is to depict the natural world’s subjugation of man and beast alike. The biological destiny and fate which compels mankind to dominate, seduce, submit, kill and eat in order to ensure survival is explored as bedazzled vixens hypnotically coexist between animal and human realms fashioning a new world among pop culture icons, symbolism and stark landscapes. Her approach towards her subject is ever changing and occillates between expressionistic fiery biting beasts, the bound submissive and the leather strapped dominatrix, towards and into a surrealistic, glossy, highly detailed world where animal and human realms intersect, collide and meld one into the other. Viddo positions herself as a contemporary artist maintaining a tradition of painting that includes a long line of artists, masters, modernists and contemporaries. Viddo’s work is suffused with classical, modern and present day references alike. She draws inspiration from many of the European masters including Bosch, Botticelli, & Ingres as well as those of the modern art expressionism & symbolism movements of Kahlo, Schiele & Klimt. Viddo currently lives and works between New York City and rural Vermont, straddling the two opposite worlds for over 20 years. Her country sanctuary not only offers her a respite from urban life, but is a source of deep inspiration for her work & maintains her profound connection to the natural world and it’s creatures. Her studio is in the heart of Chelsea, the cradle & nexus of NYC’s art world . She has been exhibiting in the New York art scene for over a decade and has exhibited alongside contemporary greats such as Chuck Close, Tom Otterness, Richard Phillips and Peter Max among others. Viddo will be participating in the Florence Biennale of 2011.