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Lara Alcántara Lansberg is a Venezuelan-born artist who has been living and working in New York City since 1999. Her multidisciplinary practice spans across various mediums, including photography, video, performance, installation and writing. 
 
With a strong focus on conceptual photography, predominantly staged self-portraits, her work presents narratives that challenge the status quo of the quotidian, exposing layers of complexity seemingly invisible to the eye. Her language explores dichotomies of the optimistic and the cynical, the comedic and the pensive, the forbidden and the compliant, the absurd and the spiritual. Through her installations and performance works, Alcántara is able to engage with the audience herself, blurring the lines of the intimate and the public.
During the pandemic Alcántara’s work went viral online, giving her career a pivotal push. She resorted to photography as a way to release her own uncertainties, fears and anxieties caused by the pandemic, resulting in an unprecedented public response as everyone could relate to these universal themes. Her art serves as a profound exploration of the female experience, critiquing societal expectations placed on women while also infusing elements of lightness, darkness, humor, and magical realism.
 
Alcántara holds a Bachelor in Arts at Bard College and NYU, and a Master of Fine Arts from Bard College/ICP.  She has had the privilege of learning directly from masters like Stephen Shore and Cindy Sherman. She also worked with photographers like Andres Serrano, and as assistant photo director at Conde Nast. Her accolades include prestigious awards like the Julia Margaret Cameron Gala Award and BIFA, recognizing her exceptional Self Portrait Series
Alcántara has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, including solo shows in New York, Miami, Spain and Venezuela. She has worked with Nohra Haime (NYC, Chelsea), Art N Folly (Miami) and Tata Fernandez, among others. Her work is in the collections of personalities like Patricia Beracasa in France, MoMa’s Terry Riley, Phyllis Tuchman among other international collections.  
 
Beyond her artistic pursuits, Alcántara is a devoted mother of two and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. She shares her passion for photography by teaching a Master Class, inspiring her students to unlock their creative potential within the frame of photography.














 
“My work is a deep look at the female dilemma.Women who want to be perfect, women who want to be beautiful, have the perfect home, do what they are supposed to do and yet go through all of this gut wrenching trauma because that perfection is impossible and we are never actually able to  please all of those who we are supposed to please. 
It's a critique on how women are supposed to be in society. There is also a light in my work, it can be joyful, but at the same time, it can be dark and it can be humorous or even enter the realm of  magical realism. It's a stark critique of the box women get put  in society. 
Drowning in the childrens toys, or hiding in the dryer or even hanging in a closet like a used piece of clothing.  This is how a lot of us feel, this is how women feel. We are drowning in domesticity, in chores and expectations. 
It is also about self realization and the process of letting go and reinvention. This is the story of womanhood, of evolution and going from being a fashionista into being an icon of domestic volatility. We are trapped in mundane things that we can't escape from. 
The images capture a feeling of wanting to come into ourselves and our power as women. I speak specifically to the female gaze and feminism. My staged photography has elements of snapshot aesthetic, however, placement and condition of every item combined with my  persona is curated to underscore a theme. “