BIO
Dafne Salis is an Italian artist and photographer based in Rome.
After graduating in photography from the London College of Communication in 2012, Salis has been working since then in the visual art field, both as an artist and as a freelance photographer. She founded Skin&Blister Collective in 2014 and was part of the Salis/Gut duo from 2013 till 2017. Salis was awarded distinction and received her MA at the Royal College of Art in 2018. She is currently a PhD candidate in the same institution, researching on gazing at women's sexual organ.
In 2020, she founded, with seven Italian artists, the art collective The Glorious Mothers, working on political stances and artistic representation of motherhood.
Her work has been exposed extensively both in Italy and abroad in venues such as the MACRO Museum, The Cripta of the Venerabile Collegio Inglese, Rome, The Dream Factory, Milan, Spilt Milk gallery, Edinburgh, Southwark park gallery, Photoworks Park gallery, Ugly Duck gallery, Photofusion, London.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Dafne Salis is an artist whose work challenges photography’s ability to support and reiterate power dynamics.
Departing from an eco-intersectional-trans-feminist position, the artist examines whether photography, with its mechanisms and syntax, is appropriate to subvert dominating narratives especially with regards to gender identity, maternity, and affection.
Salis aims at a photographical caring gaze, respectful of the parts involved, in which recognition rather than identification is in place.
Assuming photography is a device able to create an illusory relationship with our world, frequently able to adopt a position of dominance and control over the subjects represented, how does it contribute to shaping our thinking? How can we continue to use photography while unmasking the deception and the control? Here photography is not only a medium to create, but it is scrutinized in its narrative construction’s mechanisms. Sometimes it is utilized in an experimental way trying either to elude its power dynamics, or to unveil how the photographic process contributes to create its images’ meanings and perspectives. How the photographic gaze looks upon the general environment it sits within, and it is influenced and informed by it. How the relationship between who looks and what is looked upon explicates itself.
Salis’ interest resides in making visible relationships between the photographer and the model, the construction of the frame, the editing of the pictures, images’ contextualization up to the mental representation behind the picture.
Together with photography, other media like performances, texts, sculpture or workshops are employed to overcome photography’s ability to reiterate power dynamics.
Salis' work aims to challenge gender representation, patriarchy, phallogocentrism. She collects visual evidence of the invisibility and devaluing of the domestic, the censored vagina, the private house and affections, mutual caring, the experience of motherhood. Therefore, Salis’ body and of those closest to the artist are the cornerstones of the images enquiring personal relations within the family. Along with gender identities, Salis’ work resolves into landscape, its interconnection with historical heritage and the physical entanglements of matter and life. Her methods involve deconstructing the camera, the use of hyperboles, puns or demystification to solicit questions and multiple insights.
2'36'' single channeled video.
CV
SOLO SHOWS
2025 - Tecniche e Metodologie per una fotografia etica e di Cura, 33OC, Toffia, IT
2023 - The Erotic As Power, Cripta del Venerabile Collegio Inglese, Roma, IT.
2017 - La forza di rinascere, Dream Factory, Milan, It.
2016 - Locked In, Giardini di Vigna la Corte, San Felice Circeo, Latina, IT.
2016 - Locked In, The Tabernacle Gallery, London, UK.
2014 - Open Studios 33 Officina Creativa, Toffia, IT.
COLLECTIVE SHOWS
2025 - Surfaced, Beaconsfield Gallery, London UK.
2025 - Il Commino Contemporaneo, Permanent public display in the Municipality of Castelnuovo di Farfa, IT.
2024 - Narni Immaginaria, Circuito OFF, Narni (TR), Italy.
2022 - Cartography of Care, Spilt Milk Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland.
2022 - Unruly Encounters, Southwark Park Galleries, London, Uk.
2018 - Degree Show, Royal College of Art, London, UK.
2018 - Offprint, Tate Modern, London, Uk.
2018 - Photography Project Space, Royal College of Art, London, UK.
2017 - Make it Real, The Ugly Duck, London, UK.
2017 - One Night Stand, Doomed gallery, London, UK.
2017 - Fotografia Europea 2017, Circuito Off Online, Reggio Emilia, IT.
2017 - Work In Progress, Royal College of Art, London Uk.
2016 - Artemisia 2016, LaborART, Piedimulera, Verbania IT.
2016 - Skin & Blister Collective, Photofusion, London, UK.
2015 - Fotografia Europea 2015, Circuito Off Online, Reggio Emilia, IT.
2014 - Il mio Paradiso, MACRO, Rome, IT.
2014 - Future Identities Palazzo Albrizzi, Venice, IT.
2013 - A GREAT DEAL!!!' Performance Porta Portese Market, Rome, IT.
2012 - Light Headed Gallery 320, London, UK
2012 - Generators Accelerators Originators, LCC, London, UK.
2011 - The Third Factor Sassoon Gallery, London, UK.
2011 - Forum Arts #01 The Rebel Dog, London, UK
AWARDS, RESIDENCIES, COMMISSIONS
2025 - La Pelanda, MACRO, Stitching Memories, with Cristina Cusani. Residency.
2025 - Il Cammino Contemporaneo. Residency and production of a permanent piece in the municipality of Castelnuovo di Farfa, IT.
2025 - 'How to Blow up a Manifesto?', with the Glorious Mothers, Michelangelo Pistoletto Foundation, Biella, IT. Residency.
2024 - Recipient of Strategia Fotografia Award 2024. Awarded by Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea, Ministero della Cultura, IT.
2024 - Narni Immaginaria, selected for Stenopeico, Circuito OFF.
2024 - 'Dialogues toward a Manifesto', with the Glorious Mothers, Michelangelo Pistoletto Foundation, Biella, IT. Residency.
2023 - ‘Acquiferae’, with The Glorious Mothers, Castello Cabiaglio, Varese, IT. Residency.
2022 - Festival 'Contaminazioni, Echi Metropolitani della vita di Provincia, Spoleto, IT. Shortlisted.
2020 - Città dell'arte, Fondazione Michelangelo Pistoletto, Biella, IT. Residency.
2019 - On going - Artist Residency In Motherhood. Rome, IT. Residency curated by Lenka Clayton.
2018 - A+B=Love. Hackathon Ancona, IT. Winner.
2017 - Perlana For Woman. Social responsibility project commition for Perlana and Telefono Rosa.
2014 - 33 Officine Creative, Toffia, Rieti, IT. Residency.
2014 - Premio Adrenalina 2.0. Fourth classificate, young photography.
2013 - Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2013. First Round Selection Shortlisted. May 2013, London, UK.
2012 - The Third factor, Sassoon Gallery, UK. One week residency.
2009 - Excellent Work Award, the London College of Communication, awarded by Salvatore Arancio artist.
PUBLICATIONS
2025 - Tecniche e Metodologie per una fotografia etica e di cura, 2025. Self published book.
2022 - G. Blackshaw, S. Baluch, M. Fraser, N. Heidorn and R. Hermon (eds), I care by... (London: RCA Research Communiqués, 2022).
2022 - Salis, ‘Motherhood, dignity and care in productive work’. (FoMu Antwerp, BE: Trigger)
2021- G. Blackshow and S. Kivland (eds) CARE(LESS), A SUPPLEMENT TO ON CARE London: MA BIBLIOTEQUE.
2020 - Per Quando Torneremo, Ed. Il Cleb, Prato. Three poems.
TALKS - TEACHING EXPERIENCES:
2025 - Reciprocity of seeing, Lucha y Siesta, Rome. IT
2025 - Tecniche e Metodologie per una fotografia etica e di Cura, 33OC, Toffia, IT
2025 - Diffraction and Vulnerability, a reflection through photographic lenses. Casa Internazionale delle Donne, Rome, IT.
2025 - Photography and Care as acts of Resistance, Cas-co, Leuven.
2024 - Stitching Memories, in collaboration with Cristina Cusani, Napoli Photofestival, Naples, IT. Curated by Francesco Soranno.
2024 - Interdipendenza, Accademia di Spagna, Rome, IT for the Glorious Mothers. Curated by Ane Rodriguez Armendariz.
2024 - Interdipendenza, Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome, IT for The Glorious Mothers. Curated by L. Perilli.
2022 - Beast Mother, a cura di Grossi Maglioni, for The Glorious Mothers. Albumarte gallery, Rome, IT. Symposium.
2022 - Unidee, Fondazione Michelangelo Pistoletto, Visiting Artist, Biella, IT.
2021 - Students presenting their work, Bath SPA, UK.
2019 - Open Studio, Arebyte Studios, London, UK.
2019 - Students presenting their work, The Camberwell College of Art, UAL, London, UK.
2016 - The benefits of working collectively, Photofusion, London, UK.
2016 - Working collectively: Then & now, Photofusion, London, UK.
2012 - Artists Talk at 33 Officina Creativa. Rieti, IT.
EDUCATION
2020 - On Going - PhD candidate at Royal College of Art.
2018 - MA Fine Arts, Royal College of Art, Distinction.
2012 - BA Photography, London College of Communication.
