Victoria Goro Rapoport

Victoria Goro Rapoport bridges the worlds of technical mastery and conceptual depth. Born in the former Soviet Union, her education in set design at Moscow Art College and advanced degrees from the University of Utah and the University of Illinois inform her profond understanding of spatial and visual dynamics. She joined the University of Nebraska at Kearney faculty in 2004 as a professor of printmaking and drawing. Currently working in printmaking, drawing, and photography, Rapoport juxtaposes the fragile and the mechanical, walking a fine line between the real and the surreal.

Her photography series, Illusions and Imitations, was born during the COVID-19 lockdown in Venice. With just her iPhone camera, she turned the empty streets of the city into haunting, layered compositions. The series combines reflections of Venetian architecture with shop windows filled with mannequins, sculptures, and dolls. These lifeless figures take on an eerie presence, almost as if they’ve become the sole inhabitants of a deserted “ghost town.” Rapoport’s artwork blurs the boundaries between documentation and artistry. Her images are real, yet they capture the strange dissonance of a world frozen by quarantine. Familiar urban scenes in Venice are transformed, blending reflections and reality into a dreamlike tapestry.

The intersection of architecture and human figure, and their relationship to space, continue to serve as an inspiration for her graphic artwork. Her prints explore themes of religion and science as well as the struggle between human emotion and violent technology. She is an experimenter in the printmaking processes, after having worked extensively with traditional etching, engraving, mezzotint and photo-etching techniques.

Don't miss Victoria Goro Rapoport's artwork in our upcoming 2025 exhibition, In Plain Sight.