Sarita Fonseca is an emerging artist based in New Orleans, Louisiana. After a 27-year career in corporate finance, she transitioned to her artistic practice in 2023. Sarita brings to her painting an appreciation for the expressive possibilities of human connection and the conceptual use of detachable garments as a metaphor for identity and social performance. The work explores energy, grace and emotion as a joyful celebration of living in the moment, exposing the tension between the performers’ expressions of joy and freedom while the detachable clothing points to the hidden, constructed and performative aspects of identity.

Inspired by the vibrant culture of New Orleans, Fonseca’s figurative paintings capture fleeting moments of movement and expression of performers in motion at festivals and celebrations that define the city’s identity. Blending traditional and contemporary techniques utilizing oil, graphite, acrylics, marble dust and other materials on canvas, Sarita creates works that balance movement with restraint. Focusing on the gesture, expression and humanity of the performer, Fonseca intentionally simplifies garments and backgrounds. The undefined clothing serves as a metaphor for the unseen aspects of identity - those dimensions that we choose not to reveal and those that others can never fully know.

An element of playfulness, inspired by the paper dolls of her childhood, incorporates magnetically detachable mixed media elements that introduce interactivity and a sculptural dimension to her otherwise two-dimensional works. These changeable components invite viewers to participate in the work while reflecting on the many ways we present ourselves throughout our lives. Just as we choose what to wear, we continually and unconsciously shape how we present ourselves to children, parents, colleagues, friends and strangers. Identity in this sense, is not fixed but continuously assembled through the many roles we inhabit. Fonseca’s work suggests that we are, in many ways, the sum of our many outward presentations - this ever-changing “wardrobe” of selves.