In her new series, part of the RRSS project, Ana Riaño investigates how artistic identity is transformed when filtered through the visual languages of social media. To do so, she revisits several historical female artists — creators of floral still lifes who, in their time, achieved recognition despite the limitations imposed on their visibility — and transports them to a space belonging to contemporary digital culture.

Her work stems from a tension: how would these artists present themselves if they had to build a public identity on platforms such as Instagram today? What narratives would they project about themselves? What image would they have created, what modes of self-affirmation would they have employed, given that even in their own time they worked from peripheral or less institutionalised positions within the canon?

The works are constructed from a pictorial reinterpretation of their still lifes, but interrupted by frames, icons, and graphic elements typical of current interfaces. The still life, a genre traditionally associated with contemplation and frozen time, is crossed here with the immediate, bright, and artificial aesthetics of the digital environment. Painting, with its physical presence, coexists with signs of ephemeral communication, such as light bars, text boxes, and interaction commands.

This intersection highlights how exhibition logic has shifted the work from the intimate space of the studio to the highly performative space of the screen. At the same time, it raises a question about heritage: by appropriating these images and bringing them into contact with current codes, it prompts reflection on the interrupted continuity of women artists throughout history and on how, even from the past, forms of representation continue to shape the construction of identity in the present.

In RRSS / Bodegones, painting becomes a bridge between two systems of visibility: the pictorial tradition and digital overexposure. In this dialogue, Ana Riaño attempts to situate the place of the artist—then and now—in the face of the almost inescapable need to construct oneself as an image.