Overview
BIANCA RAFFAELLA
selected by Dame Tracey Emin
As a visually impaired artist, Margate-based Bianca Raffaella (b 1992) works with essential lines and marks to describe her subjects, whether this is drawn on paper or outlined through drapes with fabrics. She uses a limited selection of lines and marks that convey contours, shadows and the little extracted detail and definition that she is able to see.
As a tactile and intuitive painter, I translate the constant motion and visual disturbances of my sight through gestural marks. My work is about memory, perception, movement, and fragility. Never losing contact with the canvas, colours are blended until they become a hushed impression, details are made with fingertips or scrapes of a pallet knife. Often the viewer will detect the echo of a figure that was once there. - Bianca Raffaella
I first saw images of Bianca's work when she applied for a place at TEAR (Tracey Emin Artist Residency). I immediately fell in love with her painting, something so strange and other worldly. I could tell immediately that there was something unusual and very sincere. It was only on meeting Bianca that I found out that she is partially blind, she paints how she sees, fragments of shape and light form a dappled surface of rich memories and emotions. Bianca's work is beautiful. -Dame Tracey Emin DBE RA
