by Anna Randal
After Caravaggio is the coolest Caravaggio-inspired series of works. Using friends as her subjects and contemporary props and backgrounds, Jamie Vasta translates the original scenes of the great painter, into images of today.
Combining the baroque painting practice with kitsch features, Vasta creates a humorous line of works, without straying too far from the original works of the master. The use of glitter makes her scenes fun and likable to the viewer, who is probably familiar with the paintings of Caravaggio, and understands the hows and the whys of Vasta’s homage to him.
“The works in this series are recreations of the works of Michelangelo Merisi di Caravaggio on the 500th anniversary of his death. The models are friends and colleagues from my queer community in San Francisco, utilizing contemporary props and costumes to create new narratives inspired by Caravaggio’s paintings,” she explains on her website.
