by Mia Butter // Feb. 28, 2025
Louisa Gagliardi does not paint, as much as she creates paintings. Describing her practice as “drawing” on her computer falls short of defining what she is really doing. Referencing traditional painting, Gagliardi creates her works with a computer mouse in lieu of a paintbrush, though frequently adding brushed-on details once the PVC print has been stretched, much like a canvas. Born in Sion, and now based in Zurich, the Swiss artist is currently presenting her first major museum exhibition, ‘Many Moons,’ at the MASI Lugano. It feels like you’re stepping into another painting show, but whether it is the matte surfaces of the ink on PVC or the airbrush-but-not-quite quality of the works that convinces you otherwise, the impulse to engage remains.
Louisa Gagliardi: Installation view at MASI Lugano, Switzerland // Photo by Luca Meneghel, © the artist
Gagliardi works on her computer, using a mouse and not a stylus, as one might assume. Having initially used a stylus, she dropped the practice soon after, deeming it less precise and seeking the distance provided by a mouse rather than an imitation pen. The wrist, however, still leaves its unique trace. Whether through the addition of gel medium or glittery nail polish once the works are stretched, or even the human touch within the digital realm, the artist leaves her physical mark. There is an earnest appreciation for painting present in her work, an understanding of its history and a convincing argument against naysayers claiming “painting is dead.”
Louisa Gagliardi: ‘Green Room,’ 2023, Gel medium, ink on PVC, 3 parts 265 x 405 x 4.5 cm // Courtesy of the artist
As much as the term “post-internet” can be thrown around inaccurately and disproportionately, it suits Gagliardi’s work in more ways than one. Thematically, for example, she succeeds in portraying the irony of feeling alienated in a “hyper-connected” society through the often deadpan and indifferent expressions of her subjects. In her work ‘Green Room,’ for example, Gagliardi portrays a group of disconnected individuals sitting together in a literal green room, but referencing the place for performers to wait while not on stage, a sort of antechamber. Paintings line the wall above depicting two dogs, tethered by their leashes and yet tugging on them to interact–this being the only active social exchange present in the painting. Apathetic and disinterested in socializing with one another, the subjects the artist depicts engage in a real-life scenario that happens more than we care to admit. Our modes of interaction have long been impacted by the internet and the social media platforms it hosts, compounding the myriad of distractions on offer and allowing us to live vicariously online.
Louisa Gagliardi: Installation view at MASI Lugano, Switzerland // Photo by Luca Meneghel, © the artist
Alongside several paintings, two series were created as site-specific works for ‘Many Moons.’ Two immersive spaces separate themselves from the high ceilings, white walls and parquet. Though many of her works over the years depict liminal spaces—staircases, elevators, tunnels—these works actively create them. The entrance into the first room is guarded by two paintings of the same man, sitting on black LC2 Le Corbusier armchairs. Inside the room, all four walls are adorned with life-sized paintings, or perhaps even reflections, of people looking past each other—it’s us without being you and I. The almost awkward individuals avoid eye contact with each other, leaning and sitting on identical armchairs in the black and grey landscape. This landscape hides subtle references to the exhibition outside the four walls of the immersive space, such as a nod to her work ‘Swamped,’ only meters away in the main room, or the concrete pillars of the museum’s architecture. Besides the curtains, the only indication of a “room” in these paintings is the furniture: the LC2 chairs, which are also the only two objects in this room. The matching armchairs sit across from one another, their typical metal frame remains, while their leather cushions have been replaced by Gagliardi’s imitation on PVC. Swiss coins, a watch and a discarded collared shirt are digitally “thrown” onto the armchair, which viewers are invited to sit on, perhaps two meters between them as they face each other, forced to acknowledge one another directly.
Louisa Gagliardi: Installation view at MASI Lugano, Switzerland // Photo by Luca Meneghel, © the artist
Slightly less interactive, but one of the more tender, romantic moments in the show, the second installation shows a man and a woman, asleep, head to head like a mirror reflection. Their beds may be figments of their dreams: the mattresses like waterfalls and their blankets a grey checkered pattern, much like that used to indicate invisibility in the Adobe programs in which they were created—a sort of digital “ashes to ashes.” Fruits, candlesticks and a reappearance of Swiss coins are sketched on top of the scene, in what could be a pencil intervention on the PVC, but I know better. The wristwatches, those worn by the artist’s loved ones, stand as thin metal sculptures with Gagliardi’s digital painting printed on the surface, “engraved” with a date and the artist’s signature on their underside.
Louisa Gagliardi: Installation view at MASI Lugano, Switzerland // Photo by Luca Meneghel, © the artist
For Gagliardi, it’s all in the details. She frequently hides her signature in her works, one of the many subtle nods to traditional painting she has adopted, whether on the signature line of a bill or an “LG” monogrammed on a towel. One could get caught up in the medium, the colourful faces of her subjects or even the sheer scale of some of her works, but then you might miss it. The interplay between the two installation rooms at MASI shows a practice based on more than a fresh take on painting. The novelty is exciting, however, Gagliardi’s works explore our current social climate in a way that keeps her works interesting in the long run. While her chosen medium allows for endless undoing and correcting, it doesn’t isolate the works from the canon. Rather, it situates her works right where they should be: in the now.
Exhibition Info
MASI Lugano
Louisa Gagliardi: ‘Many Moons’
Exhibition: Feb. 16-July 20, 2025
masilugano.ch
Piazza Bernardino Luini 6, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland, click here for map
