Ronnie Mae Painter

Location:  
Website:  Ronniemaepainter.com
Instagram: Ronniemaepainter

I’m a born and bred New Yorker; painter, photographer, sculptor and storyteller. I explore my subjects through a multiplicity of mediums to broaden my access to the larger truth of a subject.

My works range from large scale sculptural “Warrior Dresses” made of rusted iron, old rusted nails with lace and feathers— an effect that looks elegant, pretty and soft, but if you got too close would cut you; to self-portraits in acrylic on canvass, paper, wood, and found materials. “Cadillacs and Crosses” was an exhibition of my Cray-Pas finger paintings which expressed the love I grew up in. Prominent in the work are figures of my larger-than-life parents, Beatrice and Roger, who hail from Italy and Africa.

A question I always ask is: What is the differential between inner realities and outer worlds? My lens is the multi-dimensionality of being. My paintings have been compared to Basquiat for my use of iconography, bold colors, and figures in a visual poetics of social commentary.

My series of photographs “The Transition” documents a female’s journey to becoming a man. My intention is to provoke a conversation about what is male and what is female, what’s black, what’s white. My paintings show Jesus as female.