Cristina Burns (b. 1982, Spain) is an Italian-American artist who lives and works in Naples. Her practice spans staged photography, digital collage, and sculptural installation, fusing advertising-inflected palettes with narratives of consumption, control, and psychological decay,  a visual language she calls “sugar-coated nightmares.” Candy-coloured objects, found materials, and scientific references are meticulously staged into images that seduce at first glance and unsettle on closer inspection, asking the viewer to read history and desire on the surface of things. Her work has been presented at institutions including PAN — Palazzo delle Arti Napoli (Italy), Museo del Revellín (Spain), the Koehnline Museum of Art (USA), the Arsenale di Venezia, and the PhotoVogue Festival (Milan), and is held in permanent public collections in Naples and Spain. Her long-term project The Lost Venus, created with SICPRE against female genital mutilation, has been presented at the Italian Senate, the Italian Embassy in London, and within UNESCO’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science programme. In recent work, her enquiry has expanded toward historical memory and political borders, most recently with the series Scars — From the Berlin Wall. She has twice been longlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize (2024, 2026).

The Lost Venus (2019–present)
Ongoing collaboration with SICPRE (Italian Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery) against Female Genital Mutilation. Presented at the Italian Senate, Rome (2023); the Italian Embassy, London (2026); UNESCO’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science, Federico II University, Naples (2025); the University of Padua, Palazzo Bo (2022); and the University of Palermo (2024).

Candy Girl (2018)
Official image of Regione Lombardia’s campaign for the Memorial Day of Women Victims of the Mafia, presented at Palazzo Pirelli, Milan.