Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gianluca Lattuada. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Gianluca, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
At the end of December 2022, just before New Year’s Eve, I created a large mural in an abandoned factory in Milan, Italy. This project was very important to me not only because this work represented the closure of a series of drawings and paintings on canvas that I had been following for six months. But above all because it made me reflect on some points related to the potential of art.
First of all, the possibility of giving life, meaning, and beauty to an abandoned space. It would be useful to reflect on how many spaces like this there are in big cities that should be redeveloped and made to live again by the community.
The second point was to move from working in a studio and exhibiting in galleries to urban art. I believe that every artist should always do both. Urban art allows you to reach people directly, without intermediaries and without a predetermined audience that normally visits art galleries. On the street, anyone can see your work, and you are subject to the purest and most sincere criticism. It works or it doesn’t work. It conveys something or it doesn’t. Like it or not.
I’m not just talking about murals. Later, I created several urban interventions. The last one was an installation inside an ancient shop window in the center of Madrid. Even artists like Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, and many others have used shop windows for their works in the past.
I understood that to really make a difference, you have to reach people’s sensitivity in different ways.
Gianluca, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Gianluca Lattuada, I was born in 1988 in Milan, Italy and I am a visual artist. Currently, I live and have my studio in Madrid, Spain.
I usually draw and paint, but I have also worked on projects in illustration and urban art. In my research, I question universal themes through eroticism, strength, violence, fragility, and the transience of life. The viewer is faced with their own shadow, in which the flesh of the body becomes the protagonist and symbolizes the fragility of life. The faces are often unrecognizable to indicate that we are all equal regardless of time, geographic origin, age, and social status.
I often use references to classical art, literature, cinema, music, and popular culture, forming a puzzle that the viewer, through their own personal tools, can decipher and reconstruct, finding meaning in the work and the message it wants to convey, in a continuous journey of intimate and personal tension.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I would like to be able to tell the unconscious of contemporary women and men. Restless and melancholic, characterized by anxieties, desires, and impulses. I would like to transform into images those personal emotions and sensations that we carry with us silently to bed at night. In literature, there are many writers who have succeeded in a masterful way. In art, less so.
What people tell me when they look at my paintings is that the first sensation is like a strong and decisive punch. But then, as they observe, they are moved inside, they begin to see things differently, in a deeper and very intimate way. Mine becomes almost a psychological work.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
First of all, follow emerging artists on social media whose work you enjoy and share your appreciation and suggestions with them as they progress. Having a virtual support group is very important and helps you understand that you’re moving in the right direction.
For those who can, the most concrete way to contribute is to purchase a work of art. The purchase should be guided by personal taste but is also an excellent investment. Art maintains value in the long term and is viewed as an alternative asset to the financial market, as it is not subject to its fluctuations. And then, a work of art is intergenerational. You’re buying a piece of an artist’s soul and can pass it down to your children and grandchildren.
For those who would like to learn more about my work, please visit my website www.gianlucalattuada.art and follow my Instagram channel @gianlucalattuada. See you there!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://gianlucalattuada.art/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gianlucalattuada/