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Paola Epifani, alias Rabarama, was born in Rome in 1969. She received her BFA from Venice Academy of Fine Arts in 1991 and immediately started entering her work in sculpture competitions, in Italy and abroad.
In 1995 she formed a partnership with the Dante Vecchiato gallery and began developing work based on ideas of free will, predestination and the risk of reduction of man to a mere biological computer. Her figurative sculptures during this period were typified by absent gazes, to suggest a world governed by cause and effect relationships, whose common denominator is the standardized programming of the species.
Towards 2011, Rabarama switched her focus to DNA and genetics. Her figures, which previously had shown no aspirations whatsoever and had just conveyed a status quo, underwent a further metamorphosis; they rip off the skin-wrapping they had been covered in from the beginning, symbolizing the need to cast off their casing, in the relentless attempt to free themselves, an exhausting and never-ending struggle.
The next stage of her journey consisted in the creation of men-trees covered in bark and interwoven grass. Her production became quite eclectic, including terracotta sculptures, painted bronze, pieces in marble and glass, oil paintings, resin inclusions, artistic gold jewels, recent rubber monotypes and graphics.
Her work has been exhibited worldwide, including at the Chinese Modern Biennial in Beijing, the Millennium Monument Art Museum in Beijing, and la Estancia Cultural Centre in Caracas.
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