Cristina Vericella “Breaking Free”

Cristina Elizabeth Vericella, born January 6, 1989, grew up in Beverly Hills. At a young age she developed a curiosity and sensitivity about people from all walks of life. Cristina is currently a Senior at Cal Arts. Her mixed media artwork navigates the dialogue between strength and vulnerability, realism and romanticism as well as impoverished idealism.

The political and psychological essence that runs through her work invites viewers to search for multi-leveled meanings. Emotional resonance of her parents’ old world Italian values keep her work both personal and universally archetypal. Cristina sustains her style by juxtaposing the genteel of nature’s beauty and the cultural tensions imposed on individuals. These unresolved issues are companions on their transitory journeys. For instance, Cristina uses the image of the bird, the weightlessness in their beauty, yet the flight is not without peril. There is no ground, no magic carpet for support. Cristina uses figurative and feminine portraiture like pre-Raphaelite goddesses of transition. Cristina’s relationship with her family is a prevailing theme in her works, of soaring towards freedom. Unease travels with those who fly.