Peperina Magenta: Empowerment through color

Growing up in an artistic household in Argentina, her father is an architect and her paternal grandmother designed unique clothing for all family, Peperina’s world was made of fabrics and colorful patterns from the very onset. Decorating boxes, binders, and notebook covers with magazine cut-outs was her passion from an early age and she knew art was her calling. Following studies in graphic design, Peperina chose digital collage as the means to express emotions and everyday perceptions, transforming them into color and composition. In today’s rapidly changing world, it is her subconscious, the essence of living through womanhood that drives her artistic path. In her words: “I am a collage myself, the sum of all the experiences and people I have met in my life.”

Peperina’s work is influenced by artists who before her put the spotlight on female imagery and sensitivity alongside the different roles played by women throughout the decades. And so we find ourselves captivated by images which, like the Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha put women center stage, imbued with the sexuality and desire expressed by Gerda Wegner’s paintings, with a touch of Andy Warhol's pop art and the strength of Frida Kahlo's ability to express emotions through contrast. Her first major collages were done using women cut out from her grandmother’s old magazines. Those were times when women in Argentina had no voice, and placing the stereotyped images of housewives and mothers against powerful and visually explosive backgrounds was a means to free them, finally giving them a voice and strength. Subsequently Peperina opted to use iconic images of women from the same era, movie stars who shone  brightly for what they represented:  “Through the use of vintage images I aim to give voice and agency to women who may have been silenced in the past. The women in my art are not just objects of beauty but also symbols of resilience, empowerment, and individuality.”

Peperina’s creative pathway has led her to explore the use of art as a means to wellbeing. The most immediately powerful tool in Peperina’s works is her striking use of color, the vibrancy and energy they exude seducing the onlooker, uplifting them, immediately transporting them into a dimension where the ordinary and the fantastic exist side by side. The bright collages radiate an extensive “joie de vivre”, again the expression of the subconscious but also often portraying the result of a healing process.  “When words fail us, we can create strong visual images that allow the pain to leave our bodies. By giving ourselves the freedom to express our feelings, we can begin to heal.”  Creativity and color are powerful tools for women, helping them in moments of difficulty, especially in the aftermath of traumatic experiences such as miscarriages or post-partum depression, themes which are very dear to Peperina Magenta who has worked helping women through creativity workshops.

Peperina has drawn extensively from the folklore and historic art of the places she has visited and lived in to enrich her artworks: in Argentina it was the colorful fileteado porteño which won her over;  in Mexico she was fascinated by shadow boxes and Tenango embroidery, while in Italy she fell in love with the intricate Roman grotesque and the vibrant ceramics of Caltagirone which characterize many of her pieces. Having settled in Denmark for the last seven years, she continues to be inspired by traditional Scandinavian folk art and colorful weaving as she creates her collages. As she continues to explore the potential of womanhood,  alongside her empowering social project with Mi Cuerpo/Min Krop, an NGO that provides rights-based and taboo-free sexual health education for Colombian and Mexican teens, Peperina has another exciting project in the pipeline: exploring ways to apply her artwork to clothing, seeing how her designs translate into different materials and how they can be incorporated into wearable pieces… and we definitely can’t wait to see the result!