Isabelle Cornaro

Through painting, sculpture, installation and film, Isabelle Cornaro explores the ways history and culture affect contemporary society’s perception of reality. A trained art historian specialising in 16th century European Modernism, the artist developed a visual language with art historical references to a wide range of periods, from baroque to modernism. In her series of installations titled Paysage avec poussin et témoins, Cornaro deconstructs landscapes in paintings of 17th-century artist Nicolas Poussin. Through the use of pedestals and meticulous orchestration of the display of objects, pathways and shadows, she turns landscapes into three-dimensional installations, questioning their cultural and aesthetic value. Cornaro often works with found objects and their assigned symbolism in the Western power dynamics, cultural representation and art history, tracing and challenging ways they shape one’s understanding of the world.