Roberta Marrero
Age 52 (born 2 Mar 1972)17 May 2024
Madrid (Spain)
Suicide
Roberta was a poet, artist, musician and actress.
Roberta Lucía Marrero Gutiérrez (2 March 1972 – 17 May 2024) was a Spanish artist, singer, and actress.
In her works as an illustrator, Roberta Marrero mixed and de-contextualized popular images, giving rise to new meanings, and using the technique of artistic appropriation. For example, in her first published book, Dictadores (2015), she transforms several photographs of icons of totalitarianism with images related to the pop world. She thus shows Mao Zedong surrounded by characters whose faces have been covered by Hello Kitty heads, and presents a portrait of Francisco Franco made up with a lightning bolt on his face, in the style of David Bowie on the cover of Aladdin Sane. With this publication, the artist stated that her intention was to "Vandalize a fascist message and turn it into another one of freedom."
In her 2016 book El bebé verde: infancia, transexualidad y héroes del pop, a graphic novel with a prologue by the writer Virginie Despentes, Marrero collects memories of her childhood and her transsexuality, explaining how the worldview of various artists from pop music, literature, and cinema inspired her, especially Boy George. The main themes in her work are power, death, fame, love, and politics.
In addition to exhibiting in Spanish galleries such as "La Fiambrera" in Madrid, some of her works have been included in exhibitions such as David Bowie Is, organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and Piaf, at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Joe Dallesandro, model, actor and star of Andy Warhol's The Factory, chose one of her illustrations for limited edition t-shirts. Precisely, the author points to Warhol as her main influence. In addition, she samples from the Fauvist movement, expressionism, surrealism, Catholic religious painting, classical Hollywood, and punk.
In 2016 Marrero denounced British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood on social media, claiming that one of her works had been plagiarized on a shirt sold through Westwood's website. The designer and her husband Andreas Kronthaler responded that the image had been copied without knowledge that it was a work by a contemporary artist.
As a musician, Marrero released two electropop albums and worked as a DJ at several Spanish clubs.
Roberta's final work was a collection of poems titled "Derecho a Cita" ("Right To Quote").
"Writer, artist and poet Roberta Marrero returns in this second collection of poems, Right to Quote, to an imaginary of our own that speaks to us about everything of desire. A desire sometimes consummated, sometimes frustrated times, and that accompanies on this occasion From countless quotes drawn from the vast universe bibliography that makes up the creative universe of the author.
Can you imagine a room with Pizarnik, Lemebel, Saint Teresa of Jesus, Marrero, Crisp, Sexton...? All on velvet couches listening to Lana of the King.
You never said the party was always funny, your corpse, I mean, a collection of poems, is rather the Longer hangover after the brief wish party. Be maybe the saddest party in the universe, but Nan Goldin will take the pictures, and then it will have been worth the sorrow.
And that, I think, is what this collection of poems is about."
Roberta's Instagram profile is https://www.instagram.com/roberta__marrero/.
https://www.infolibre.es/cultura/muere-52-anos-artista-escritora-roberta-marrero_1_1794299.html
https://www.elmundo.es/cultura/literatura/2024/05/18/66487442fdddffc68e8b4594.html
https://www.publico.es/sociedad/muere-52-anos-artista-poeta-roberta-marrero.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberta_Marrero
