Tatiana Cardellicchio - The Flower Keeper

In The Flower Keeper, the portrait and the still life seem to belong to a single presence. The black calla lilies symbolically abandon the vase and rest on the eyes of the figure, turning the concealment of the gaze into a guarding gesture. A twin to Stolen Flower, the work links theft and possession, body and ornament, beauty and control. The woman does not observe the flowers: she integrates them and becomes their silent guardian.

THE SERIES

The work belongs to the series “Petal Dictatorship – The Aesthetic Regime,” an autobiographical and conceptual photographic project by Tatiana Cardellicchio.

In the series, flowers — traditionally associated with grace, femininity, and decoration — transform into devices of control. Through carefully crafted self-portraits, the artist investigates the pressure exerted on the female body by aesthetic ideals and the constant demand to surveil, correct, and shape one’s own image.

The project explores the tension between imposed identity and image, seduction and coercion, intimacy and spectacle, conformity and resistance. The face is often hidden or replaced by flowers: beauty thus ceases to be a mere ornament and takes the form of a regime.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Digital photography, printed and signed in 2026.

Fine art Giclée print made on premium satin paper 270 g/m² with Epson UltraChrome HD pigment inks, chosen for chromatic intensity, tonal depth, and long-term stability.

Overall print dimensions: 30 × 45 cm
Limited edition of 20 copies in this format. Each copy is hand-signed and numbered on the back.

The work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity, stamped and hand-signed by the artist, attesting to its provenance and belonging to the declared edition.

IMPORTANT SHIPPING INFORMATION

The print is sold without a frame and without a passe-partout.

To ensure protection during transport, it is carefully rolled and shipped inside a rigid tube. The print will not be delivered flat.

Any environmental or framed images are for illustrative purposes only. For the actual dimensions of the work, refer to the measurements indicated in the description.

Bio

Tatiana Cardellicchio is an Italian visual artist and photographer whose gaze is nourished by the light of Southern Italy, transformed into poetic matter. Her research investigates the relation between body, identity, nature, and gaze, focusing on how identity is modeled, masked, and negotiated through aesthetic codes.

She graduated in Photography from the Italian Institute of Photography and builds narratives suspended between aesthetics and awareness. Through self-portraiture and staged scenes, she uses the body as subject and material, turning photography into a space of inquiry rather than mere representation.

Her work explores the tension between beauty and power, ornament and resistance, surface and depth. Flowers, fabrics, light, and symbolic objects recur as visual devices that appear decorative but reveal mechanisms of control, visibility, and transformation. Her images invite slowness, listening, and attention, questioning how bodies are seen, inhabited, and understood.

In 2025 she was named Floral Artist of the Year 2025, with publication by Artist of the Year Award, and she received the IPFA Award 2025 – Awarded Solo Exhibition, with a solo show in Brazil in 2026. In 2026 she also received the First Prize at the Motif Collective Photo Contest – Reflection. In 2024 she received the Silver Medal at the Prix de la Photographie Paris in the Portrait/Self-Portrait category for the project Impact.

Her works have been exhibited in international contexts, including ImageNation Paris, London, and New York, as well as in festivals, galleries, and museums such as Paratissima, the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia, Medina Roma, and the Christos Kapralos Museum in Greece. Her practice defines a coherent and recognizable poetics, moving between self-representation, emotional ecology, and aesthetic identity.

Selected Exhibitions

2026

101 ArtBook: Photography Edition, Arts to Hearts Project; Featured Interview

Floral Artists of the Year 2025, publication by Artist of the Year Award

IPFA Award 2025

Home-s, Christos Kapralos Museum, Greece

2025
* Imagenation London, London, UK
* Endless Spring, Paratissima, Turin, Italy
* I Am – I Am. Photography and Feminine Identity, National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia, Rome, Italy
* Impatto (solo exhibition), LAB Ex Macello, Taranto, Italy
2024
* Imagination, One Art Space Gallery, Tribeca, New York, USA
* Naked – Part of You, Medina Gallery, Rome, Italy
* Nuovi Corpi. Silent Dialogues Between Body and Nature, Rome, Italy
* Selvino Art Fest, Selvino, Italy
2023
* Free Bodies, Imagenation Paris, Galerie Joseph Le Palais, Paris, France
* Impatto (solo exhibition), Porto Cesareo Film Festival, Italy
2022
* New Eyes, Imagenation Milan, Fondazione Luciana Matalon, Milan, Italy

Awards & Recognitions
* Honorable Mention, Best Photography Awards, 2025
* Silver Medal, Prix de la Photographie Paris (PX3), Portrait / Self-Portrait Category, 2024
* BESTSELECTED Vol. 7, Series Winner, 2024
* Finalist, Autoportrait Photography Prize, 2025
* Official Selection, Trieste Photo Days, 2025