Visual Artist & Photographer
valentina_stellino@hotmail.com
VAT Number: BE: 0704.607.802
*1992, Brasschaat (BE)
Based in Antwerp (BE)
Valentina Stellino documents the lifestyle of specific branches from her family and from acquaintances. The artist’s approach exceeds mere documentary photography, as her work is augmented with psychological tension and a perplexing ambiance.
The majority of these images feature one or more family members or relatives, paradoxically photographed from a detached perspective. The models’ movements are arrested and they all assume stilted positions, resulting in frozen scenes that resemble tableaux vivants or, more relevantly, certain portraits that were produced during the Golden Age period in The Netherlands. Indeed, Stellino asked her sitters to re-enact their own domestic rituals and mundane activities in a familiar and unmediated environment. The results are more often than not poses that are neither self-assured nor completely unnatural – unease, on the other hand, is prevalent.
Clearly, the series is built upon a narrative, though one that is opaque and barely comprehensible at first sight. As is the case with 17th-century Dutch art, the viewer impulsively starts to look for clues in the depicted scenes and interiors, in the subjects’ small gestures, interactions and facial expressions. Other echoes from this period are Stellino’s elaborate use of the light available in a given situation, invariably creating a rather distraught atmosphere, as well as a keen eye for subdued, witching tonalities of colour.
Thus, Stellino’s work is situated between fiction and non-fiction; it inhabits a zone between real-life events and a reconstruction thereof.
TOM NYS 2015
EDUCATION
2014-2016
Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (BE)
Photography Masters of Fine Arts
2013-2014
Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (CN)
Photography Exchange studies
2011- 2014
Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (BE)
Photography Bachelor of Fine Arts
WORKSHOPS/ TEACHING
2022
IKO Acadmie Hoogstraten- docente fotografie (BE)
BREEDBEELD “Beeldselectie en -sequentie” (BE)
2021
Encora- Berchem - docente fotografie (BE)
IKO Acadmie Hoogstraten- docente fotografie (BE)
Workshop “photography & The Unknown- BREEDBEELD”
Workshop “huidhonger” BREEDBEELD
2020
BREEDBEELD “Beeldselectie en -sequentie” (BE)
Docente Academie KAN- NIEL (BE)
2019
Academy GAFA, Guangzhou, China (CN)
BREEDBEELD “Storytelling” (BE)
Stedelijk Lyceum Cadix, fotograrfie, “Storytelling”
Antwerpen 2000 (BE)
CVO -Kapellen docenet fotografie
2018
Fotografie- Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen
“KASKA”-Antwerpen 2000 “Self-portrait” (BE)
Fotografie- Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen
“KASKA”-Antwerpen 2000 “Stroytelling” (BE)
Stedelijk Lyceum Cadix, workshop aan zee, fotograrfie, Antwerpen 2000 (BE)
2017
Academy GAFA, Guangzhou, China (GN)
“DE KUNSTBENDE” workshop fotografie (BE)
2016
Diversiteit op het Kiel “DE VEERMAN”
Samen met MONICA MONTé en NYIRAGASIGWA HENS (BE)
2015
“I” workshop samenwerking met Joanna Maria Druyts (BE)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2016
“CONTINUITY” RUIS pop-up shop
Statiestraat 14, Antwerpen Berchem, 27.05.2016- 3.06.2016 (BE)
2015
“RELATIVE”, Georges espressobar, Londenstraat 27, 2000 Antwerpen, 22.03.2015- 5.04.2015 (BE)
2013
“Segreti Svelati”, CENTRO CONGRESSI MARCONI, CORSO SEI APRILE NR° VI 17.08.2013 - 25.08.2013 (IT)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019
“Intimate structures”, Tique art space 09.05.2019- 01.06.2019 (Romy Alizée, Elena Aya Budurakis, Dinaya Waeyaert) (BE)
2017
“Musée de la photo de Bruxelles Museum van de Fotografie van Brussel”, Recyclart, 07.09.2017 - (THOMAS NOLF, MARIE SORDAT, FRANCOIS GOFFIN, MAX PINCKERS, MICHEL CLAIR, BIEKE DEPOORTER, JOSEPH CHARROY, ANTONIO JIMENEZ SAIZ, JIM CAMPERS, CAROLE MELCHIOR, PHILIPPE HERBET, MARTIN GALLONE, TEO BECHER, ADINA IONESCU-MUSCEL, LEO SEYERS, IAN DYKMANS, DAVID UZOCHUKWU, BOUMEDIENE BELBACHIR, VEERLE FRISSEN, NANO WALLENUIS, VALENTINA STELLINO, HELENE AMOUZOU, BERTRAND CAVALIER, ARCHIVES REX, MATHIEU VAN ASSCHE, KATLIJN BLANCHAERT, FREYA MAES, JULIE SCHEURWEGHS ,GERT JOCHEMS, THOMAS VAN DEN BERGHE,OPHELIE FRIBERG, SIMON DARDENNE, SARAH VAN MARCKE, FILIP DE SMET, ALJOCHA HAMERLYNCK, PETER DEKENS,..) (BE)
“Betwix and Between”, FOMU of Antwerp, 04.05.2017- 6.06.2017( Nadine Hattom (IRQ/AUS), Ana Janeiro (POR), Maha Maamoun (EGY), Valentina Stellino (BEL) and Malika Sqalli (MOR/AUT) (BE)
"KIP - Kunst in Puurs", Gemeente Puurs, 06.01.2017 (Ayla Van Houcke, Blancbec, Nick Geboers, Natasja Lefevre, Nicolas Baeyens Cathy Bertel, Marijke De Belie, Bert Juliaan, Karolien Hamers of Lion Beach) (BE)
2016
"PASSAGE", Photo Gallery ASBL, Galerie de la Reine, 06.10.2016 (Annie Ling, Yenci Kiss, Constantin Schlachter and Sébastien de Ville de Goyet) (BE)
“We Never Said We Would Be Famous” (Tjarda Goovaerts, Lukas Verdijk, Vesna Faassen, Sofie Nagels, Jente Maes, Arno de Pooter, Jade Sips, Caroline Kolkman) Antwerpen (BE)
2015
“DESTINATION UNKNOWN” Collectiv National galerij, Nationaalstraat 160, 2000 Antwerpen- België, Het RUIS COLLECTIVE. (BE)
“S[c]ene” Collectiv National galerij, Nationaalstraat 160, 2000 Antwerpen (Careth Arnold, José Carlos Zavares Pinto, Nathan Haaren, Stephanie Kroth, Janna Beck, Sandra Charles, Bau Everes, Katheryn E. Harrison, Jolien Brands, ..) (BE)
“We Never Said We Would Be Famous”(Tjarda Goovearts, Lukas Verdijk, Vesna Fassen, Sofie Nagels, Jente Meas, Arno de Poter, Jade Sips, Carolien Kolkman) Antwerpen (BE)
2014
“Spectacles” (Careth Arnold, José Carlos Zavares Pinto, Nathan Haaren, Stephanie Kroth, Janna Beck, Sandra Charles, Bau Everes, Katheryn E. Harrison, Jolien Brands, ..) (USA- FLORIDASARASOTA) “INTAC SIMULATION” (Tjarda Goovaerts, Hilde Lenaerts, Nanó Wallenius, Joan Panhuyzen, Ben van den Broeck, Jesse Lubben…) (Guangzhou, CN)
“THE FLAVOR OF THE CITY” (Tjarda Goovaerts, Hilde Lenaerts, Nanó Wallenius, Joan Panhuyzen, Ben van den Broeck, Jesse Lubben…) (Guangzhou- CN)
2013
“Diversity” [ Hilde Leenearts, Lukas Verdijk, Vesna Fassen, Nanó Wallenius, Charlotte Boeyden, Isabelle Alders, Sander Adriaens, Tjarda Goovearts ,... ] De Nieuwe Vrede Antwerpen-Berchem (BE)
2012
“Sailors Don’t Cry” [ Tjarda Goovearts, Lukas Verdijk, Vesna Fassen, Nanó Wallenius, Lise van Trijp, Ann de Sadeleer, Jade Sips, Isabelle Alders, Charlotte Boeyden, Sander Adriaens,... ] Antwerpen- (BE)
“Photography = Fiction?” [ Alina Helal, Sebastian Gärtner, Tjarda Goovaerts, Lukas Verdijk, Anni Hanén, Cinta Mercédesz Gombos,...] Galerie: beim Engel (Luxembourg) 11.09. -20.10.2012 (LUX)
2010
“Autonoom” [ Lotje Vleugels, Kelian Ibens, Shana Alves de Castro, Nora El Arbi, Carry Kretz, Romaina Pasten Vera, Tinne VandePerre, Magalie Peeters, Brain Breugelmans,...] Sd Worx Antwerpen (BE)
PUBLICATIONS
2017
Aesthetica, The Art and Culture Magazine Issue 77, June / July 2017
Oogst Magazine, een tentoonstelling op papier nr.10
Oogst Magazine, een tentoonstelling op papier nr.9
2016
Mouvement, Magazine culturel indisciplinaire n.86, Désillusion, December 2016
2015
.TIFF magazine Fotomuseum Antwerpen
Gazet Van Antwerpen metropool stad, 23 February 2015
ONLINE PUBLICATIONS
2014 - 2015
Photography campaign, “Abortion law 25 years” Belgium
SNOR Online Magazine
2012
Hart Magazine
Alqamah, Italian magazine