Artists

Louise Giovanelli

Press release

What lies behind the curtain?

Before a performance begins, all attention is focused on the closed curtain. At first, everything takes place in the audience’s minds – expectations and possibilities are limitless. The acclaimed British painter Louise Giovanelli stages the magic of this moment in her often large-scale oil paintings, confronting its fleeting nature with the richly detailed materiality of the fabrics she depicts. In collaboration with the Hepworth Wakefield Gallery and the HALLE FÜR KUNST, Graz, Museum VILLA STUCK presents the artist’s first major solo exhibition in Germany. On view are ten new works and a representative selection of pieces from recent years.

The play with concealment that Louise Giovanelli orchestrates in her paintings arouses curiosity and invites reflection on perception, knowledge, and mechanisms of representation in art. She declares the framing of the performance – or the stage itself – to be the true subject, using it to explore every conceivable register of color, light, and texture with a keen sense of drama. The draped fabrics, reminiscent of the Old Masters, are created through numerous translucent layers of paint. Yet the material seems to dissolve theatrically through glittering reflections of light. Giovanelli applies this technique to other motifs as well, such as dresses or wigs, which appear both precise and artificial. Her painting thus addresses the artificial nature of art itself.

At the center of Giovanelli’s seemingly glamorous spectacles are rituals shaped by social and cultural groups. Some stage motifs refer to so-called Working Men’s Clubs – institutions that emerged in Great Britain in the 19th century as counterparts to elite gentlemen’s clubs and served the leisure activities of the working class. Religious allusions – such as to the inquisitorial pronouncement of judgment known as the auto-da-fé or the pilgrimage hymn A Song of Ascents – meet an ecstatic nightlife fed by the pop-cultural imagery of the 1970s to 1990s. Giovanelli explores this thematic complex in a series of small-format depictions of faces. Often blurred and fragmented, they appear detached, showing turmoil or ecstasy in wide-open, gasping mouths and distorted facial features. Intoxication becomes a consciousness-expanding experience in which drugs, sex, and enlightenment merge, pleasure, horror, and violence intertwine, and individual features increasingly blur.

Giovanelli draws inspiration from photographs, film stills, and iconic works from European art history. The glow in her works, however, outshines ethnic and social differences and creates a sense of togetherness. The radiance unfolds a visual quality that goes beyond mere visibility. Glittering effects veil the actual appearance, diverting the gaze – even from worn curtains. In this glow, collective happiness transcends the isolation of the individual.

Kuratiert von Marie-Charlotte Carrier und Helena Pereña
Eine Ausstellung der Hepworth Wakefield Gallery in Zusammenarbeit mit der HALLE FÜR KUNST, Graz, und dem Museum VILLA STUCK, München