Originally from Colorado, Holly Rios has an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Utah and a BFA in Printmaking and English from Western Colorado University. Working primarily with copperplate etching and screenprinting, her work utilizes a limited color palette and merges text with image. Her content explores a variety of topics including domesticity, gender construction, gender inequities, maternal relationships, and horror. Often using appropriated imagery and collage, Rios is interested in media literacy – viewing media as a mirror of social attitudes. She has taught intaglio and foundation printmaking at the University of Utah, and currently teaches drawing at Utah State University.
ARTIST STATEMENT
The monsters in my work are not monsters by a traditional understanding, but rather utilize monstrosity as a tool of disruption to interrogate the male gaze. This body of work surveys feminine construction, exploitation, and the male gaze through divisive media. Intentionally sourcing imagery from two polarizing types of media – the horror genre and pornography – I am recontextualizing familiar imagery to critique the social attitudes that have formed them. The monstrosity of these images is rooted in the ways that they break expectation. These familiar presentations of women have been distorted to glitch the male gaze, highlighting identities that have been projected on to them or utilizing erasure and concealment to undermine their objectification and the viewer’s gratification. “Monstrosity” presents as a complex container for women that don’t neatly pack away into simplistic tropes. Monsters have agency that most women don’t.
LINKS
https://hollyemilyrios.com
IMAGES
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Categories: Printmaking | Utah Artists - R