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Luisa Rabbia (b. 1970, Turin, Italy) blends the distinctions made between the human and the natural, expressing solidarity with the cosmos through the organic, bodily landscapes of her expansive paintings. The scale of Rabbia’s paintings suits the themes she explores, oftentimes depicting overlapping abstracted figures joining and breaking apart, seemingly overcoming their physicality. She alludes to interconnected natural processes forming a thread between microcosms and macrocosms and interweaving them in a nebulous primordial state. Continually in flux and transforming, her forms created in expressive hues also evoke spiritual transitions. Upon closer viewing and bringing this substantial work to a more intimate level, her physical and intuitive process becomes visible with its rhythmically scraped paint, the stratification of pencil marks, and imprints of fingertips. Rabbia alludes to the minute traces that each person leaves over the course of a lifetime, yet simultaneously asserts an expansive and interconnected vision of a wider universe.
Luisa Rabbia lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and is represented in NY by Peter Blum Gallery. She received her MFA from the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti in Turin, Italy. Solo museum exhibitions include: Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA; Fundación PROA, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, Italy; Fondazione Merz, Turin, Italy. Group exhibitions include: Magazzino Italian Art Foundation, Cold Spring, NY; Manifesta 12, Palazzo Drago, Palermo, Italy; Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy; Biennale del Disegno, Museo della Citta, Rimini, Italy; Lismore Castle, Waterford, Ireland; Shirley Fiterman Art Center, New York, NY; Maison Particulière, Brussels, Belgium; Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; Museo del Novecento, Milan, Italy; MAXXI Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo, Rome, Italy; Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China.
Rabbia was a Visiting Professor in Drawing at Harvard University, Cambridge, in 2013/2014. She received the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2022 and NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Painting in 2007.
[…] Luisa Rabbia joined us from New York where she is presently working on a challenging project embracing the idea of psychological/terrestrial inferno. Typically, Rabbia focuses on positive messages, so this examination of something darker is a departure. She defines psychological inferno in terms of a state of mind felt by many in these complex times as we grapple with multiple crises all around us. To hear more about this and Rabbia’s other work, listen to the complete interview. […]
WoW!!! What an Incredible Intervew! What an Incredible Artist! and you Brainard such a naturally flowing conversationalist and inquirer:-) What a pleasure. Paintings are Fantastic!!! Luisa Rabbia artwork grabs you….it strangely feels live and awakens something inside.,Looking closer you closely begin to listen and become breathless realizing that telepathic conscious communication exists. Meanning we communicate the same thought, emotion by looking at the painting- she speaks many minds. The subject of a psychological inferno seems as dark and unknown as an ancient abyss, in her work, and yet, it also so known and familiar to humans. Thank you. So looking forward to listen to Luisa Rabbia after she finishes this deeply engaging project.
[…] Luisa Rabbia joined us from New York where she is presently working on a challenging project embracing the idea of psychological/terrestrial inferno. Typically, Rabbia focuses on positive messages, so this examination of something darker is a departure. She defines psychological inferno in terms of a state of mind felt by many in these complex times as we grapple with multiple crises all around us. To hear more about this and Rabbia’s other work, listen to the complete interview. […]