Anita DeSoto

Anita is an Otepoti/Waitaha, artist living in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Her recent work pays homage to the Baroque era while highlighting the ongoing struggle for women’s rights. In today’s world, where these rights are at risk, it’s essential to revisit history and acknowledge the persecution women have endured. Drawing inspiration from Baroque masters, lush and colorful, oil on linen pieces challenge traditional gender roles, sparking a postmodern discourse, and inviting viewers to question the portrayals of gender by European artists of the past. The work is a platform to discuss women’s historical resilience, emphasizing their enduring strength and the urgent need to safeguard and advance women’s rights in a world where they face renewed threats. 
Expressionist and sometimes abstract brush strokes of fluid paint create a dialogue between the past and the present. 
Contemporary painters such as Cecily Brown and Flora Yucknovich, and photographer Cindy Sherman also inform her practice. They all draw from the historic European painting tradition and reinterpret Baroque and Rococo paintings and the use of the tableau to examine the nature of female representation. 
With 24 years of experience exhibiting her paintings nationally and internationally, Anita holds a Master of Fine Arts and taught Drawing and Painting at the Dunedin School of Art, Otago Polytechnic for 20 years since 2004. Anita has also been awarded several art residencies, including the Leipzig International Art Program in Germany (2010), Aratoi Fellow in 2012, artist-in-residence at the New Pacific Studios in Vallejo, San Francisco in 2014, and the William Hodges Fellowship 2018. Her work is held in collections at the Pah House, Auckland,  Eastern Southland Gallery, Anderson Park Gallery and Southland Art Foundation, Invercargill