Side Effects
"Artists who explore controversial subject matter, like Tina La Porta,
whose work deals with her experience with schizophrenia,
bring culturally critical viewpoints into the discourse that engage art audiences
and actually do make art a more democratic experience."
--Moira Cue, The Hollywood Sentinel
" Tina LaPorta transforms personal objects—pills she has taken for her own mental illness—
into disquieting art that comments on our overmedicated populace.
In her brightly dangerous "Sweet Madness," mandala-like pill formations rest against a sparkly backdrop.
The drugs look like candy—surely the intention of their makers—"
--John Thomason, Boca Mag
"The chorus of shouting voices artist Tina La Porta heard alone in her Manhattan apartment seemed to be coming from everywhere.
One shouted up at her from the street three stories below. Another sounded like a muted conversation in the hallway outside the door.
Another voice sounded like her close friend, who said her name in a cheerful, sing-songy tone.
The voice from the street told La Porta to leap out the window.
"I thought I was being followed, or bugged or something, and someone could see me through the window of where I was staying,"
recalls La Porta, who had spent time at a psychiatric center for depression.
"The voice said, 'Jump, Tina, jump, I'm right down here,' so I got up, grabbed my dresser and moved it to block the window,
and thought, 'No way am I jumping."
--Phillip Valys, Sun Sentinel
"Tina La Porta .. shifts your view from the artist's own struggles with schizophrenia
to draw attention to the growing abuse of prescription drugs in our society today."
--Carlos Suarez De Jesus, Miami New Times
" Tina LaPorta ... addresses commonly felt themes such as loss and recovery"
--miami.com
Hearing Voices Video
"Tina La Porta's mixed-media work containing pills and plaster, portrays a balancing act of another kind.
The artist, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and has undergone many trial-and-error processes with prescription medications
that offer temporary relief from something she describes as 'nothing less than terrifying.'"
--Colleen Dougher, Sun Sentinel
"Tina La Porta's artwork explores online identities in chat rooms, webcams, and video conferencing;
... askinsing questions 'Is cyberspace your window or your mirror'?
an abiding theme in digital arts."
--Steve Dixon, Digital Performance: A History of New Media inTheater, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation
