BRITA D’AGOSTINO

Resident April 2024

Brita d’Agostino is an American interdisciplinary artist, designer, and educator born in New York, NY. She currently serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Art at New Mexico State University (NMSU). Prior to her teaching appointment at NMSU, she served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at Daemen College in Amherst, New York, and worked in the publishing industry for the award-winning publication Wired Magazine.

She received a BA in Art from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, 2003; and an MFA, University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) in 2007. Her research and practice encompass digital art and design, and span a variety of media: installation, collage, design, photography, and interactive computer-based projects that include critical discourse and design pedagogy. Her work has been exhibited in national and international venues, including the Aperture Foundation, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, and Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center. Themes explored in her art works include the transformation of cultural imagery, where societal images are deconstructed and reimagined, offering viewers a fresh perspective on familiar content. Additionally, she utilizes symbolism and metaphor to explore complex issues such as the paradoxes of desire and societal expectations surrounding femininity. Her awards include a Fulbright Fellowship to Australia in 2019.

"Drawing inspiration from the mythical and symbolic essence of Galatina, a city rich in historical and cultural significance, my surreal explorations delve into the magical identity of the city. My artistic process is based on the narrative of transformation and supernatural 'healing' of the city, leveraging natural elements that take on otherworldly powers. Using photogrammetry, I create 3D models of the natural elements I discover in the surrounding landscape. These models are then manipulated, transformed, and integrated into the city spaces through augmented reality technology. The resulting image collages capture fleeting moments of ephemeral virtual installations, ghostly apparitions of natural elements floating in the urban landscape of the city. They serve as evocative documents, offering glimpses of these ethereal manifestations, visible only for a brief period of time."