Rosângela Rennó’s work is predominantly photography based, although she rarely takes photographs of her subjects. Instead, she recasts and transforms appropriated photographic images. In the past she has presented anonymous portraits compiled from existing photographs - photographers’ studios and even photographs of prisoners’ tattoos. Whist she finds novel and often politically charged ways of presenting the images, her work is also profoundly humane, as the viewer finds themselves imagining other people’s lives, particularly those who are marginalized or unacknowledged. For Rennó, “the ‘stories of the losers’ are more interesting than the ‘history of the winners.” (© ArtForum)

Rennó’s solo exhibitions include the Centro Cultural do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro; the Museu do Chiado, Lisbon; the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney; the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the Appel Foundation in Amsterdam. She represented Brazil at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003.

Rosângela Rennó was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in 1962. She lives and works in Rio de Janeiro.