Artist Bio for Anita Fontaine
Anita Fontaine’s fantastical modifications, media interventions and new media explorations radically repurpose contemporary technology to surprising new ends. Her aesthetic can best be described as a technical virtuosity and creativity in mastering the digital idioms of our contemporary visual landscape, infused with a rebellious sense of play and a taste for magic.
Interestingly, Fontaine’s materials are unexpected; rather than the plein air paintings of past, her work is fashioned from commercial, readily accessible platforms; typically entertainment technologies of our day. Some of her tools of the trade include the video game Unreal Tournament 2003—which employs physics engines designed to predict the effects of Newtonian law—the virtual space of second life; or mobile phone technology and GPS. From these diverse contemporary technologies, Fontaine fashions new realms, coaxing these mundane technologies into vibrant expressions in the realms of the unreal. The resultant visual iconography includes vibrant, hyper-colored Harlequin lands marked by a sense of hyperrealism, yet characteristic fancy. Referencing the wonder and potentiality of classic fairy tales, Fontaine instead invents new idioms, drawing on the contemporary digital/visual landscape to spin her mythologies within the grand Metaverse.
Fontaine’s work affectively bridges the divide between the long-held distinctions between reality and artifice, imagined and real-world dreams, virtual and actual territories. Her works flit between worlds, in a liminal space, showing that reality is not a singular entity, but can at once be limitless and manifold. Her explorations into new technologies are radical, free spirited and on the brink of innovation; yet they are also fundamentally situated within the classic Western humanist tradition of exploring mimesis through virtuosic displays of verisimilitude. Firmly rooted in the impossibly infinite potentiality of new expression, Fontaine weaves a beautifully fabricated tapestry that inspires us to look beyond our immediate façade to new, wondrous worlds.
Anita Fontaine was born in Australia and currently lives & works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Her fine art aesthetic is informed by a constant engagement with the creative community, pushing the boundaries of innovative expression. She is the Co-founder of the design studio Champagne Valentine, whose award-winning work in motion, gaming, interactive and mobile have made her and partner Geoff Lillemon darlings of the new media design world.
Anita Fontaine been exhibited internationally at a number of galleries and museums, including, Ars Nova museum in Finland, Gallery of Modern Art, Australia, and the Maxalot Gallery in Amsterdam.