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Louisa Gagliardi at Dawid Radziszewski Gallery

March 7, 2020

Artist: Louisa Gagliardi

Exhibition title: Raincheck

Venue: Dawid Radziszewski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland

Date: February 28 – March 28, 2020

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Dawid Radziszewski Gallery, Warsaw

Few things you should know about Louisa Gagliardi:

She’s 30, lives and works in Zurich, and despite her Italian-sounding name, she doesn’t speak Italian. She grew up in a big, happy family home in Sion, a town in the heart of Alps. Switzerland is surely a perfect backdrop for a delightful childhood.

A recurring theme in her work is the loss of youthful innocence and ease. There’s some sort of nostalgia in it, but also fallible memory. Like a daydream.

You should also know Louisa doesn’t paint the way other painters do. Her paintings are made in Photoshop. She then prints them on the banner-like PVC and adds an extra layer of physicality, using materials like gel medium or nail polish.

The characters from her paintings are genderless avatars. They’re often hanging out in well put together yet somber domestic landscapes, with carpeted rooms and soft bed mattresses. They are so busy navel-gazing that they don’t even notice when soft-edged inanimates take over.

Pet rabbits become furry keychains. A cocktail umbrella catches fire on a flammable rug. As if retaliating against their roommates, amused by their self-absorption and lack of will, they ignite chaos.

Louisa Gagliardi (b. 1989) has a background in graphic design – studied in Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne ECAL (BA, 2012) and Gerrit Rietveld Academie. “Raincheck” is her first solo exhibition in Poland. She had recent solo shows at Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels; McNamara Art Projects, Hong Kong; MOSTYN, Llandudno; Plymouth Rock, Zurich; Pilar Corrias, London; and Tomorrow Gallery, New York. She has participated in group exhibitions at Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau; Centre d’art de Neuchâtel; Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen; Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich; the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art; Istituto Svizzero, Rome; König Galerie, Berlin.