They look like whimsical wisps of color and shape and gently rolling landscapes. But Selina Roman’s new body of work actually consists of parts of her own physique that she’s turned into modernist-inspired abstract images. Sarasota Art Museum’s Executive Director Virginia Shearer explains the artist’s rationale.
“Her work is a wonderful take on the female form and the energy that we put towards trying to keep a female form a certain way and a lot of the pressures that come along with living in a female form. They're all made from twisting and turning her body in certain ways in costume. So if that doesn't kind of whet your appetite, I don't know what will.”
Roman wears pastel bodysuits and tights to create narratives around the aesthetics of femininity.
“It's very interesting that she chose to also accentuate these certain aspects of the female form through costume,” Shearer observed.
Roman is no mere point-and-shoot picture taker. She makes dozens of decisions before she ever makes an image. Color, placement, costume, lighting and shutter speed all enter the equation.
“There all of those million and one decisions, and they all get melded together in what they call the decisive moment in photography,” said Shearer. “So it'll be interesting to see. This is all new work for Selina, and we are really thrilled to be showing it here at Sarasota Art Museum.”
The show’s called “Selina Roman: Abstract Corpulence.” It’s on display on the second floor of the Sarasota Art Museum Aug. 31 through March 29, 2026.
MORE INFORMATION:
New works by Selina Román blend photography, abstraction, and self-portraiture to explore themes of beauty and the politics of size. Roman’s photographs feature tightly cropped images of the artist’s own body, boldly occupying the full composition and extending past the boundaries of each frame. Pastel bodysuits and tights transform the artists’ flesh into new, gently rolling landscapes as amorphous shapes converge to create modernist-inspired compositions. At this scale, Roman’s tightly cropped portrayals of stomachs, thighs, and hips become formal studies of line, shape and color, asking viewers to consider the human form from a point of true abstraction. The softly hued palette created by the artist’s bodysuits lends itself to narratives around the aesthetics of femininity. Displayed as a colorful never-before-seen installation, Roman’s photographs transform the gallery into a space of quiet resistance, subverting traditional ideas of feminine beauty.
The work on view at the Sarasota Art Museum is from her XS series.
Each image is a dye sublimation on aluminum.
Roman was named a prestigious 2024 Critical Mass Top 50 Artist for her XS series.
“My work explores ideas of femininity, perception, liminality, memory, place, and how the invisible offers more answers than what’s visible,” states Roman on the landing page of her website. “Using formal and conceptual methods such as staged and straight photography, appropriation, sound and video, my work confronts established perceptions and norms and offers a new framework for contemplation.”
Roman trained as a print journalist. A Florida native, she ferreted out stories of injustice in marginalized communities such as migrant farm workers and the poor.
After working in journalism, Román spent several years at an international security and investigations firm where she became privy to the inner workings of the private-sector intelligence community. That clandestine world, rooted in surveillance, gestures and coded details, rekindled her love of photography.
Román received her master of fine arts degree from the University of South Florida in 2013. She has participated in residencies with the Visual Artists Network and Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator. Her work is in the collection of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota; the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art in Tarpon Springs; the Tampa Museum of Art, Hillsborough Community College; as well as numerous private collections.
Román has exhibited nationally at institutions such as The Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Kenyon College in Ohio, and internationally at Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica, and Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She also exhibited at Brighton Photo Fringe in the United Kingdom during the 2016 Brighton Photo Biennial.
In 2017 she received a Hillsborough County Artist Grant and has been invited to participate in Review Santa Fe and Critical Mass Top 50.
Her work has been published twice in the Oxford American magazine, among other publications. She currently teaches photography courses at the Ringling College of Art and Design.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.