Virgo 

Curator: This is "Virgo," a painting by Fernanda Suarez. What are your first impressions? Editor: There's an ethereal quality, definitely something classical but with a modern sensibility. The window is a beautiful visual anchor, but what's arresting are those cool violet eyes in such a romantic depiction. It feels like a subversion. Curator: I find the window symbolic, it's gothic but almost blurred, representing, perhaps, established, sometimes rigid, frameworks slowly being dismantled. Suarez offers this feminine figure in opposition to those constraints. Editor: The figure, almost Botticelli-like, evokes purity and a certain vulnerability. But the modern rendering of skin, with what seems like birthmarks, is powerful, reclaiming the female form. Is there more at play here than the astrological title suggests? Curator: Potentially, yes. We could consider this through a feminist lens—challenging beauty standards and celebrating the individuality of the subject. This artwork reflects contemporary intersectional issues: beauty, body image, and self-acceptance, particularly as seen through a very modern gaze. Editor: Visually, I keep coming back to the flowers. The language of flowers in art history—could they represent both love and transience here? I wonder if Suarez is exploring these classical concepts in juxtaposition with modern attitudes toward self-love. Curator: Perhaps, especially when looking at it within the historical context of Romanticism and the idealized representations of women common to that movement. Here we have romantic elements reworked in line with progressive ideologies. Editor: Looking deeper, one appreciates the way in which inherited notions can be reconsidered. And from a symbolic viewpoint, to see older iconography blended to express modern identity is just powerful. Curator: Precisely. Suarez prompts a re-evaluation of what it means to depict beauty and femininity, and the sociopolitical charge this art ultimately brings. Editor: I hadn’t considered how those neo-expressionistic details tie it to so many powerful historical references at once! Curator: Ultimately this makes a complex picture that goes beyond its apparent grace.