A native New Yorker, born in the late 70’s and raised in downtown Manhattan, Ms. Ibanez is an award winning poet whose other many talents include fashion design and photography. She currently lives and works in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Her photography has been included in numerous exhibits in New York City as well as published in such magazines as “Z!ink”

For her exhibit at Invisible NYC, Ms. Ibanez uses photography to present a contemporary New York City take on 17th century Dutch paintings of daily life. Her photos present urban subject matter, whether it be an abandoned McDonalds lunch or a young woman in a New York City apartment. Her painterly approach to the medium recalls the still lifes and portraits of Dutch masters such as Jan Vermeer and Willem Kalf. Commonplace situations of city life and culture are given a magical and timeless quality through her dramatic use of light and shadow. At times one forgets that the works are photographs at all and imagines instead rich oil paintings. As Vermeer created images of surpassing beauty drawing from the simple, everyday life of mid-1600’s Delft, Ms. Ibanez looks to contemporary New York City culture and achieves works that transcend their subject matter. She is a genre photographer of her own time and environment. Her subjects, while retaining their gritty integrity, are! elevated to the status of relic. They possess a jewel-like preciousness through Ms. Ibanez’s poetic use of color and composition.