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Paradise Lost: In the late seventies Miami re-emerged as a cocaine-ridden city of drugs and violence. Debaucherous discothèques, palatial mansions, exotic car dealerships, and international banks defined the new space that would become the future of contemporary South Florida. Paradise Lost features photography, film, mirrored etchings, and works on paper exploring the themes of power, desire and destruction. Historical figures like cigarette boat king Don Aronow, drug queenpin Griselda Blanco and celluloid icon Tony Montana all inspired as symbols of empty promise . "I figured it was a loose metaphor, much like the 1667 poem Paradise Lost by John Milton about the fall of man," says Casagrande. “In the glamour of the night, the mirrored squares circling the dance floor create a fleeting contradiction between fantasy and reality. The power of transformation, and the popularity of cocaine’s anxiety ridden nature framed my decision to work within the notion of mirrors and perception. The grid pattern’s allusive nature creates a linear abstraction reducing the space down to a single square. The square becomes a ring, the ring becomes a battle, and within this square is a spectacle of power. A dance unfolds where power and morality are on the line until a new opponent emerges in victory.” -- Paul Mittleman, curator, Paradise Lost. About Reggie: Reggie Casagrande was born in Fairfax, VA. and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She studied at Syracuse University and UCLA. Casagrande started her career in New York working for fashion photographer Sante D’Orazio and spent the next decade in Los Angeles and Sydney honing her craft shooting celebrities and focusing on fashion photography. Her work has been published in PAPER, Elle, Marie Claire, Traveler, theFader, and Details magazines. Her advertising clients include Hard Rock, AOL, Nike, Target and Motorola. In December 2007 she founded LipstickTracez Magazine where she received critical acclaim for creating a culture-rich, lifestyle-driven multimedia destination focusing on contemporary art, fashion and design culture. Her first solo show, Paradise Lost was exhibited for the Mid Wilshire Artwalk in 2009 and she has gone on to be featured in group shows at Colette Paris, Ring Cube Gallery Tokyo, Tokyo Photo, SEE Line Gallery and Known Gallery in Los Angeles. |
