Icebox Gallery presents:
Beneath the Surface
New large color photographs by Minnesota photographer
Rhea Pappas

Rhea Pappas gently submerges the viewer Beneath the Surface into a quiet world that seems beautifully alien and dream
like. Her female models float gracefully without any resistance, others appear engulfed in bubbles as if they fell into a
dream by surprise. Rhea photographs underwater in the clean clear water of a swimming pool.Her models look
through the water with open eyes and are captured in poses resembling sculptures or angels.

The water creates its own lens collecting and randomized twists and changes in shape proportion in a placid surrealistic
way. The clear water frames a figure bathed in white light that mutes colors often creating a pallet of illuminated pastels.
Bubbles and flowing cloth are the only visual barrier in an otherwise sharply focused view.

Rhea Pappas has found a world that she feels safe and comfortable in. A world that is only a plunge away, a beautiful
stage where muses return to the womb in a dance of autonomy and purity protected from the world of gravity and chaos
above.

In December 2008 Rhea Pappas, at 22, graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. While in school
she received many awards including the Scholastics Portfolio Scholarship and Advertising Photographers of America
best of students first place. While in college she also started assistant teaching at a local high school, community ed
programs, and Independent Film Projects.

Just out of college, she has shown in NYC, Vermont, France, and Internationally. In 2009 she won numerous
international awards for her new underwater series at Prix De La Paris and the International Photography Awards.

Icebox Gallery is pleased to begin our 23rd season featuring new photographic work by this promising young
photographer. Rhea’s fresh dynamic photographs emit energy and emotion. Rhea Pappas has the kind of talent that we
enjoy and want to promote at Icebox Gallery and she happens to be 23 years old.

Prints: 23 - 30 x 40 inch prints. Media: Digital archival inkjet.

Link here to see images from the opening.

It was a wonderful opening on May 15, 2010

Regular Hours: Tues – Friday 10 - 6, Saturday 12 – 5,
Closed Sunday & Monday. Show Continues through July 31, 2010

See the video below:
Minnesota Orginals / Rhea at work making images for her Icebox exhibit.