Olga S. Ortiz
Olga S. Ortiz is a conceptual still life photographer who has exhibited in Spain and the United States. Her most notable shows include collective exhibitions at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts in Tampa, winning second place in the still life category, and Praxis Gallery in Minneapolis, Minnesota where she was published in their catalogue and selected for a first place juror’s award. At the prestigious International Photography Awards (IPA), Olga won four honorable mentions in various categories and has received 11 nominations at the Fine Art Photography Awards. She has been published in a couple of Saatchi Art catalogues and has been featured in their collections half a dozen times to date.
These photographic compositions contain theatrical and conceptual handmade installations created by Olga herself. She views art as a way to change preconceived notions of sensory experiences and create an alteration in the viewer’s mood. Olga takes the functionality of certain objects or staged scenery and redirects them to be ironic, absurd, or humorous, such as turning an octopus into a bottle of perfume or suggesting death by eating too much Froot Loops cereal. These hand-constructed theatrical installations are second to none in production values and contain fine craftsmanship of creating various illusions like a miniature television melting into a blob of paint.
The theatrical still life photography remains mostly void of human actors with the exception of hands engaging in performative actions, such as being lured into a bear trap or removing, holding, or activating a strategic object within the composition. Most notably, the color schematics of the photographs can be found to have a consistent pattern of neutral tones, such as variations of white, followed by soft pastels, including pink and purple. These colors create an ambient mood reflecting tropical and New Wave environments through their invocation of heat and jubilation. Olga redefines the purpose of functionality by creating interactive props which communicate notions of glamour, danger, and luxury. These finely-tuned sets invoke emotional reactions in regard to their calamitous and cataclysmic results from carefully directed actions guided by contradicting subject matter or reactive staged acting with hands.
Flexitarian Plant (pictured above) remains one of Olga’s most theatrical works to date. Reminiscent of the 1980’s film Little Shop of Horrors, the staged scene appears to show hands pampering and providing a manicure to a meat-eating plant as if he were the star of the show. Much like the comedy film, the concept of an inanimate living object such as a plant garnering so much attention on a glamorous scale seems absurd and humorous. We could interpret the Venus flytrap as being in a state of bliss due to the pampered treatment being received.
Olga S. Ortiz captures dynamic intimate scenes carefully staged, directed, and crafted by her own hand to create a deep theatrical presentation which amplifies irony and emotional impulses. We are taken on a journey through her fantastical imagination ingrained into redefining purpose and function of various still life objects and their relationship to the viewer or to carefully choreographed actors. These integrative techniques of combining handmade installations into performative, theatrical photography enhances innovation in the visual arts beyond just capturing ready-made scenery. Instead of function as form, Olga engages in function as concept as she plays with notions of irony and absurdity like a tool of precision.
