ABOUT
ARTIST STATEMENT I'm Aldara. I've been shooting underwater since 2010, and honestly, being underwater saved me. I studied fashion design in Madrid, but I have always been drawn to artistic creation in all its forms, especially when the female body is at the center. As a woman and an artist, I am fascinated by how much we hold at once: strength and vulnerability, sensuality and power, grace and raw emotion. My photography celebrates that complexity, the full spectrum of what it means to inhabit a female body. While building my artistic career in New York City, I lost access to my painting studio. The city felt relentless, noise everywhere, and nowhere to create. Swimming in a local indoor pool became my refuge, a way to quiet everything and return to myself. Water became my escape. Beneath the surface I found a different world: muted sound, and a quality of light that moves through reflections and refractions, transforming everything it touches. With it came a feeling I had never experienced above water, absolute presence, weightlessness, and the visceral sensation of being fully held at the same time. I found support, serenity, and freedom. Underwater photography was born from that discovery, and from a deep desire to hold onto that feeling and bring it into every part of my life, and to share it. What started as mixed media, painting directly over my underwater photographs, evolved over time into a fully digital practice, while keeping color and painterly intention at its core. Today I treat each photograph the way a painter treats a canvas, touching every area of the image individually, building light and feeling from within. I call it painting with light. People often tell me my work looks like paintings. That is exactly what I am going for. The surface reflection you see in most of my images is my signature, a mirror between worlds where everything doubles and transforms. The colors are equally intentional. These are emotional self-portraits. I am deeply connected to my subjects during every shoot, feeling what they feel, and that exchange is what lives inside the frame. Inspired by my passion for dance, I bring that same energy and emotion into the water. Every immersion begins with a concept, but the essence of it is spontaneous. Underwater, many elements are beyond full control, light, movement, breath, and that unpredictability is part of what makes each image alive. The muse and I hold our breath at the same time. I have shot everywhere: swimming pools, oceans, cenotes, open water across the Caribbean and Mediterranean. Different series explore different ideas. "What Would You Rather Be?" looks at perception, "Coral Dream" dives into color and coral formations in the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef in Roatán, and "Freedom in Confinement" plays with paradox. But it all comes back to the same questions: How does water transform us? What happens when we surrender to it? That is what I thrive creating, the transformative energy of water, inviting you to connect with its profound emotional resonance. ARTIST BIO Aldara Ortega is a Madrid-born fine art underwater photographer based in Miami. Since 2010 she has built an internationally exhibited body of work spanning solo and group exhibitions across the United States, Latin America, the Middle East, and Canada. Her work is held in private collections across the United States, Latin America, and Europe. Ortega trained as a fashion designer at the Fashion Design Superior Center in Madrid before relocating to New York City, where her practice as a visual artist began. Her camera is the medium. Water is the vehicle. The human experience is her subject. She treats each photograph the way a painter treats a canvas, working section by section, building color, shadow, and light with meticulous precision. The surface reflection visible in most of her images is her signature, a consistent visual element where light doubles and transforms everything it touches. Ortega holds SSI Freediving and PADI Freediving certifications, both pursued to deepen her underwater photography practice, as well as a PADI Scuba Diving certification. Three years ago she relocated from New York to Miami by deliberate choice, specifically for proximity to the ocean and the bodies of water that make this work possible. CV Education Fashion Design Superior Center, Madrid, Spain Sustainable Agent of Change, University of Colorado System. Tropical Coastal Ecosystems, The University of Queensland. Selected Solo Exhibitions 2024 Bound by Water, Private Exhibition, Art Week, Miami, FL 2021 Dive In, Galerie L'Atelier, New York, NY. 2020 Etérea, Tulum, Mexico. 2014 Liquid Project, NH3 Gallery, NY 2013 Liquid Desert, Casa Mezcal, New York, NY 2012 Refractions, Space 108, Miami, FL Selected Exhibitions 2025 Color House, Miami, FL 2023 Salt House Fine Art, Sag Harbor, New York 2022 Context - Art Miami, Art Basel Week, Miami, FL. Hamptons Fine Art Fair, Southhampton, NY. Galerie L'Atelier, Greenwich, CT. 2021 Context - Art Miami, Art Basel Week, Miami, FL. Galerie L'Atelier, Greenwich, CT. Art On Paper, New York, NY. Summer Breeze, New York, NY. Re-Merge, Bridgehampton, NY. Art Marker, Bridgehampton, NY. 2019 White Porch Gallery. Miami, FL. 2018 “Displacement: Woman’s Journeys”, Ceres Gallery, New York, NY. Art Palm Beach, West Palm, FL. 2017 Context Art Miami, Miami, FL. Feria Internacional de Arte y Cultura de Bogotá, BARCÚ, Colombia. Georges Berges Gallery, New York, NY. Market Art + Design, Bridgehampton, NY. Roman Fine Art, East Hampton, NY. 2016 The Flatz Gallery, Breaking Surface, Peekskill, NY. Art Hamptons, Bridgehampton, NY 2015 Scope Miami,Florida. Art Toronto, Canada. Feria Internacional de Arte y Cultura de Bogotá,BARCU, Colombia. Affordable Art Fair New York, NY. Galleria Ca D’Oro, Breaking Surface, New York, New York Art Hamptons, Hamptons, NY Index Dubai, International Design Exhibition, United Arab Emirates 2014 Art is Life and Life is Art, New York, NY What would you rather be?, Group Show, New York, NY 2013 ManHATan/MADhattan, New York, NY Majestic Creations, Temporary Public Installation, New York, NY 2012 Linus Gallery, Motion, Online Exhibition Linus Gallery, Bits an Pices, Pasadena, CA Linus Gallery, Water’s Edge, Pasadena, CA Location 05, Group Show, New York, NY MOD’ART International, Shanghai International Fashion Center, Zeal, Shanghai, China The Boiler Gallery, Annual Wagmag Exhibition, Williamsburg, NY Lazypoint, Summer Group Show, Amagansett, NY Quartier Salon, Brooklyn, NY 2009 20 Bond, Group Exhibition, New York, NY |
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