Rachel Portesi Photography

04/25/2026

The Washington Art Association & Gallery is pleased to present Natural Forms, a three-person exhibition featuring the work of Tom Doyle, Rachel Portesi, and Amelia de Neergaard. On view from April 25 through May 23, 2026, this exhibition brings together three artists whose practices engage with the structures of the natural world from varied material and personal perspectives.

Rachel Portesi’s photography examines the shifting terrains of femininity, motherhood, and aging. Her work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Griffin Museum, and the Newport Art Museum, and has been featured in publications such as Vogue, Forbes, and Art News.

Tom Doyle (1928–2016), a major figure in postwar American sculpture, was a recipient of both Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. Doyle exhibited widely, including in landmark exhibitions at the Jewish Museum and the Whitney Biennial. His work, held in major museum collections internationally, distills mass and structure into compositions that feel both architectural and natural.

Amelia de Neergaard, who lives and works in Cornwall, Connecticut, creates intricately constructed works using organic materials and processes rooted in papermaking and fiber techniques. Influenced by Japanese and Scandinavian design, her work emphasizes repetition and accumulation.

03/22/2026

Signing a new edition of duo-tone photogravures printed by Nathanael Kooperkamp & Walker Blackwell . These beauties will be for sale at the upcoming Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair - April 9-12 2026 @ 322 3rd Ave, Brooklyn, NY

Printed in 2026
Duo-tone photogravure over Hahnemuhle Copperplate White
12×12 inch plate, 14×14.25 inch paper
Edition of 18 with 2 APs and 1 BAT
Printed by Nathanael Kooperkamp & Walker Blackwell
Published by Prints on Paper Studio
Signed and Editioned by the Artist
Edition ID: RP-001

12/06/2025

Excited to be part of the Legacy exhibition at SPAO, Photographic Arts Center, Ottawa, ON • Canada
November 8 - December 14, 2025

Slide no. 1
“Homage to Bourgeois”
2025
Tintype to AI video

Slide no.2
Bourgeois Spider I,(from Homage toBourgeois quadriptych)2017Tintype to digital print

Slide no. 3
Imogen2018Tintype to digital print

Slide no.3
Tassels I (from Tasselsdiptych)2018Tintype to digital print

Slide no.4
Antlers2019Tintype to digital print

Slide no. 5

11/12/2025

I’m deeply honored to have my work included in Flower Power by Beata Nowak and Michel Poivert, published by in Paris.
Bringing together 30 artists from around the world, this beautiful book offers a fresh and thought-provoking perspective on the theme of the flower. More than a decorative motif, the flower becomes a symbol of life, experimentation, and new ways of seeing and making images.

https://www.editionstextuel.com/livre/flower_power

ISBN: 978-2-38629-102-9 #

LINK IN BIO

10/15/2025

Thank you to Alice Dodge and Seven Days for this thoughtful review of my exhibition “The Nature of Things” at the McCarthy Art Gallery at Saint Michael’s College, curated by Jordan Douglass.

“The idea of connection — to nature, to other people, to the universe — is deeply important to Portesi’s concept of the work, which aims to convey the spiritual aspect of her encounter with the woods. Walking in the forest gave her a sense of unity with nature, she said — and she realized that underground mycelial networks mirrored what she felt aboveground.

Portesi began to research spiritual traditions and philosophy, such as Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things from the first century BC, in which he conceptualized the atom. She found the Roman philosopher’s ideas — primarily that nothing vanishes in death, but all particles recombine into something else — embodied by mushrooms and their role in cycles of decay and growth.”

With sincere thanks to Ethan Brossard for being there through every step of planning and printing this exhibition. I spent much of the past six months recovering from an injury and surgery, and this show could not have come to fruition without his help.

Printed at Prints on Paper Studio in Cabot, Vermont by Walker and Nathanael. - “Portesi printed the photographs at Prints on Paper Studio in Cabot, whose expertise in calibrating an extremely dense, dark tonality comes through. In a series of morel mushrooms pictured on a black ground, the physicality of the ink is reminiscent of rich soil.”

Additional thanks to Amaia Echanis, Tim Allen, Eren (Erika) Kasser, Dickie Colo, Jason Breen, Laura Hinerfeld, Slip Stream Farm, and my FAMILY.

Wicker burial tray by Marry Lauren Fraser

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10/09/2025

While visiting Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, scientist Erik Lilleskov gave me a tour of the Rhizotron—an underground research facility in Houghton run by the US Forest Service’s Northern Research Station. We observed mycorrhizal fungi and their interactions with plant roots—such a treat to geek out about mycelial networks and actually see what I’ve been making art about. The UP is absolutely stunning—and of course, I made plenty of time for sauna!

09/28/2025

At the heart of this exhibition is my desire to share a kind of spiritual experience I’ve found in nature and philosophical thinking it led me to. As a photographer, my first instinct is to reach for my camera to capture and share my thoughts and experiences. However, photographs of the woods could never capture the kind of transformation I felt while in a kind of walking meditation. I found myself feeling fully connected to everything around me, plants animals, and all living things as well as a feeling of time collapsing. I realized that the mushrooms I’d been photographing and the mycelial networks they create mirrored the feelings of connection I was feeling in the woods. It’s like the boundary between the self and the world begins to dissolve - The experience is one of unity — a knowing that we are all part of something vast, cyclical, and eternal.

09/18/2025

08/31/2025

Posted • A few more large advanced monochrome inkjet prints from our day with .portesi these tintype photographs were reproduced at an amazing scale holding all of their original detail and beautiful unique marks. This was such a fun series to push with this scale and slight warm tonality, printed on hahnemuhle bamboo.