Tavormina lives and works in New York City, gathering produce at farmers markets throughout Manhattan in order to create the intricate studies she captures on film. Her arrangements often recall the sumptuous detail of seventeenth century master painters, highlighting the food on display as much as the table setting, while some images are pared down, with twine replacing fine silverware in a style reminiscent of Spanish still life masters such as Francisco de Zurbarán and Juan Sánchez Cotán.

Before Natura Morta, Tavormina was a food stylist in Hollywood, her work seen on the silver screen in films such as Nixon and The Perfect Storm. She has also worked with chefs, including Doug Rodriquez, Mark Miller, and the Fabulous Beekman Boys, arranging and photographing food for cookbooks. She currently photographs works of art for Sotheby's, New York.

With a successful first showing in Robert Klein Gallery's presentation at Paris Photo 2009, Tavormina has also garnered acclaim in the United States. As Wayne Andersen writes in his introduction to her catalog, "All of Paulette's still-lifes are about the simplicities of life: seeing and feeling the birth of things, aging while seizing precious moments, facing up to the fragility of love, balancing emotions on thin high-wires, hiding secrets in sealed tombs, suffering desires-tempus fugit...Oddly, her still-lifes are not still, but like her, are scrambled with life." 

Tavormina's work will be on display at the Robert Klein Gallery from November 12 - December 31. Please join us for an opening reception on November 12 from 6-8pm.