Brazilian artist Rosângela Rennó's work is predominantly photography-based, although she rarely takes photographs of her subjects. Instead, she recasts and transforms appropriated photographic images. In the past, she presented anonymous portraits compiled from existing photographs - photographers' studios and even photographs of prisoners' tattoos. From November 23 to January 15, 2010, the Pharos Centre for Contemporary Art in Nicosia is presenting an exhibition of her works, titled Ring, as part of the Brazilian Culture Month 2009.
Whilst Rosângela Rennó finds novel and often politically charged ways of presenting the images, her work is also profoundly humane, as viewers find themselves imagining other people's lives, particularly those who are marginalized or unacknowledged. For Rennó, “the 'stories of the losers' are more interesting than the 'history of the winners'.”
Born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 1962, Rosângela Rennó lives and works in Rio de Janeiro. She is an Architecture graduate from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte (1
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Rennó's solo exhibitions include the Centro Cultural do Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro; the Museu do Chiado, Lisbon; the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney; the Museu de Arte de São Paulo; the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the Appel Foundation in Amsterdam. She represented Brazil at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003.