Statement and Press

 

Statement

Breaking an existing structure and creating a new one, that seems to be the driving force behind my work. Structure, fragmentation, repetition. Images seem solid, but delicate. Forms are material, but spiritual too. My images can seem quiet and still, but they are full of life. Lines, surfaces, colors interact to create harmony and equilibrium, a new structure in chaos.

I love vibrant, optimistic colors. Sensuous, saturated colors. My paintings combine realistic imagery with abstract patterns. I enjoy playing with the layering of different visual textures and different patterns that break forms and create new ones. The different layers, the interaction between light and shadows, interior/exterior, convey an invitation to the viewers to feel and experiment their inner self and emotions.

I work mainly with acrylic paint and mixed media on canvas or wood. I develop visual textures with brushes, rollers and stencils.

To imagine, to create, to express on canvas, bring up mixed emotions, anxiety, restlessness, urge, curiosity, fun, pleasure, and at the same time submerges me into a kind of meditative state. Painting takes me to a warm, peaceful, gratifying place I don’t want to leave.

Cityscapes

Seemingly still and quiet, my cities are awakening, rising, changing. They might impress as clean and pure, even cold and sharp, but there is an emotional quality in them. They are full of life, and joyful promises. Stillness gives way to soft rhythms and energetic, positive emotions. The controlled, polished surfaces interact with playful layering of patterns and designs. Light is extremely important to me, to convey a feeling or emotion in the spectator.

In a city, in life, in knowledge, nothing is definite, but in constant movement, creation and recreation, opening to the future.

Press

For Andrea De Luigi, the still image is a way of capturing many moments. De Luigi paints bodies in movement and scenes from multiple perspectives. Under her brush, a running bull fractures into itself so that its body becomes a collection of half-seen poses, and a rearing horse is shown in three different profile views – all combined into one powerful figure.
In non-action shots, the energy is derived from the many views De Luigi gives us of the same image. She puts a special emphasis on light: the way it streams from different sources, affects the look of a scene, and emotionally affects the viewer. When De Luigi does depict single frames, they are wreathed in these same sharp angles and beams of light, so rich they seem to be solid. These works owe a debt to cubism, but they are not descendants--De Luigi’s style is much more ordered. Agora Gallery | 2017 | New York

When Andrea De Luigi showed me her paintings I was very impressed by her skillful treatment of color. The intense reds, the green and blue tones, the depth of the violets. The vigor of her palette conveys a vital force that is present in all her work. Something very enigmatic and alive, thriving to manifest itself goes beyond the materiality of the canvas. Her landscapes and forests, in which the leading role is assigned to color, transcend the merely anecdotal, and her very particular way of feeling, even of enjoying color, is admirable. Ernesto Sábato | 2001 | Centro Cultural Borges

Andrea De Luigi is undoubtedly an amazing colorist. Drawing is firm, form is clear. Her work is a homage to the fundamental role of color, that is, for many, the essence of visual art. Rafael Squirru | 2001 | Arte al Día

Design and color at their most elaborate delicacy, since prodigious are the visual virtues of this refined artist. Her achievements are comparable to those of her elevated teachers. Her work shows perfect and admirable making and inspiration. César Magrini | 2002 | Galeria Forma

Much more than flowers to look at

Flowers have very often been a favourite subject for artists and, especially, would be artists. Few have succeeded in doing something more than, at best, making a pretty, decorative picture to hang in the living room. Andrea De Luigi certainly doesn't belong to the latter category. Her floral portraits are remarkably vivid, even powerful, dramatically contrasting, sensuous surfaces, saturated hues. They somehow convey their creator's joy of life. She also pictures her subjects from unusual angles, including close-ups, thus achieving remarkable visual effects. She presents her works in triptychs and quadriptychs as well as in the familiar single format. In spite of the stillness of the subject these pictures are strikingly dynamic. The style is unabashedly figurative but free from the constraints of hyperrealism.

And, what's more, these paintings are truly beautiful.

Alfredo Cernadas | 2003 | Buenos Aires Herald

Andrea De Luigi has an excellent plastic education. The strength of her drawings, and the refinement and conceptual clarity of her paintings, come from those great masters. As an art critic with so many years of experience as I am, I congratulate her for the integrity of her work, and the beauty of her expressions. Rosa Faccaro | 2003 | Galeria Forma

...Her works evince an intense and personal creative search. Through her outstanding sensitivity, she delves deep into a universe of her own, fraught with magic and reverie. Arte al Dia Documenta | 2002

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