NEREIDA PATRICIA VENUS CONSTRUCT

Nereida Patricia is a visual artist and poet based in Chicago who has recently moved to Brooklyn, NY. Patricia’s practice spans sculpture, painting, and performance, and explores themes of mythology, trans poetics, and identity. Her work draws from postcolonial and Black feminist theory, Peruvian and Caribbean symbolism, as well as autobiographical fragments, to explore trans femininity, violence, gender, race, and sexual politics. She has studied at The New School and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute Chicago. Her work has been exhibited at venues such as DUPLEX, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; Eric Firestone Gallery, New York; Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago and more.

Venus Construct, a work that glitters with glass beads, adorned with skeletal angels about to take flight, is nonetheless weighted by its concrete foundations. Propped on two concrete blocks, the work which professes that Venus, the goddess of love was born from fantasy, sweating, also appears like a tombstone. The mythological scene oscillates between violence and a plush seduction, dark depths and elevation. The artist’s poem in high relief hovers over the weighty figures below, narrating the scene or perhaps foreshadowing what is to come.