ARTWORKS – Ludovica Lugli

Surreal women

Surreal Women

Surreal Women is a series of paintings that reimagines the female figure through symbolism, surreal imagery, and psychological narratives. Neither portraits nor idealised representations, these women inhabit dreamlike spaces where everyday objects, unexpected juxtapositions, and symbolic elements become extensions of their inner worlds.

A defining characteristic of the series is the deliberate absence or concealment of the face. By removing the subject’s facial identity, the works resist individual portraiture and redirect the viewer’s attention toward gesture, symbolism, colour, and the emotional narrative embedded within each composition. This artistic choice invites viewers to move beyond personal identity and engage more deeply with the universal meanings conveyed by the work.

Blending classical painting techniques with a contemporary visual language, Surreal Women explores themes of identity, vulnerability, resilience, and transformation. Femininity is presented not as a fixed condition but as a fluid landscape shaped by memory, desire, relationships, and imagination, leaving space for each viewer to project their own experiences and interpretations.

The Anatomy of Intimacy

The Anatomy of Intimacy investigates the invisible bonds between people and the spaces they call home. Through hand-painted frescoes, symbolic imagery, and contemporary decorative language, each mural becomes a living surface where memory, identity, and emotion quietly unfold. Every environment is conceived as a place to inhabit not only physically, but emotionally.

Animalia

Is an ongoing series of paintings that explores human behaviour through anthropomorphic figures suspended between instinct and culture. By combining human bodies with animal heads, each character becomes an allegory of emotions, social dynamics, and psychological states rather than a literal representation.

Inspired by mythology, fables, and surrealism, these hybrid beings inhabit ambiguous spaces where irony coexists with vulnerability. Every animal is chosen for its symbolic qualities: the wolf embodies desire and power, the pelican sacrifice and care, the pig excess and illusion, while birds often evoke freedom, fragility, or transformation.

Through vibrant colour, decorative surfaces, and carefully constructed compositions, the works invite viewers to recognise aspects of themselves in these fictional creatures. The absence of a fixed narrative allows each painting to become an open psychological landscape where identity is fluid and constantly negotiated.

Rather than portraying animals, Animalia reflects on what remains instinctive within human nature. It is a visual investigation into the tensions between appearance and authenticity, control and impulse, individuality and the roles we perform in contemporary society.

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Suspended Listening

Suspended Listening is an ongoing body of work that explores listening as an act of presence, care, and human connection. Through sculptures, installations, and mixed-media works, the project transforms the ear into a symbolic form, shifting its role from a biological organ to a metaphor for empathy, attention, and shared experience.

Clay, plaster, natural fibres, and found materials become vessels for reflecting on the fragile balance between speaking and listening in contemporary society. Repeated, suspended, or embedded within immersive environments, the ear emerges as a poetic reminder that genuine communication begins not with words, but with the willingness to receive them.

Rather than offering answers, Suspended Listening invites viewers to slow down, embrace silence, and reconsider listening as a creative and transformative gesture capable of strengthening relationships between individuals, communities, and the natural world.

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Komorebi

Komorebi

Is a site-specific installation inspired by the Japanese word describing sunlight filtering through trees. Using natural and biodegradable materials, the work explores the fragile relationship between humans and nature, inviting visitors to slow down, listen, and experience the quiet beauty of impermanence.