VIENNE REA

About the Artist

Vienne Rea is a visual artist who presents her work in international, national, and regional exhibitions and galleries. Her creativity is expressed through multi-disciplinary visual arts—primarily, photography and sculpture. She prefers to work in themed series in both art forms. The artist’s chosen themes are emotionally-derived, and are either based on direct personal experience or stem from a compassionate response to another’s personal history. The expressive storytelling in Vienne Rea’s work is both compelling and sensitive.   As a sculptor, Vienne Rea innovatively uses a wide variety of materials and hardware to create contemporary sculpture...which has become The Ladder Series. In her early sculpting career, Rea used assemblage techniques with metal, acrylic, and distinctive hardware to bolt, lace, and drill onto paintings and her photographs to create a third dimension. In 2013, Rea's pursuits in sculpture turned to the single theme—Ladders—which had come to her in a dream. Fueled by this new inspiration, she sought a mentor to guide her in metal welding which beneficially led her to the renowned sculptor David Hess. Today, combining traditional and non-traditional materials, and using a wide array of sculpting techniques, the artist continues to expand on the captivating theme. The use of ladder-as-symbol has become a vehicle for her expression of autobiographical experiences and biographical stories which she has witnessed in her lifetime. All the while, each sculpture in this universal theme can also elicit one's own personal associations and interpretations.