Ellas

The performative photographs from the *Ellas* series are being exhibited in a gallery in France for the first time. The project has already been acquired by numerous private collections and by the Perez Art Museum (Miami). *Ellas* asserts a feminine identity as a tacit assertion of power: the body defines its status and compels the viewer’s gaze to shift. Depending on the image, the flowers may seem to protect the woman—but they can also reveal another form of ostentation: that of self-assured power. Karen Paulina Biswell draws on her Native American heritage to select flowers imbued with power; the legs thus become not only emblems but totems.
Born in 1983 to Colombian parents living in Paris, Karen Paulina Biswell constructs a visual universe where historical tension and the present resonate with one another. Her work is featured notably at the Quai Branly–Jacques Chirac, the Rencontres de la Photographie–Musée Réattu, the Banco de la República, and the MAMM.