Louise Giovanelli, Picture by Duncan Elliott
Louise Giovanelli (b. 1993, London) is a Manchester-based painter whose work bridges the historic and the contemporary, exploring the interplay between figuration, abstraction and the materiality of paint as a system of representation. Her delicate, luminous paintings invite a slow, contemplative process of looking, emphasizing light, texture and color to create ethereal, narrative-rich imagery. Drawing on a wide array of sources - including Renaissance paintings, film stills and pop culture - Giovanelli reworks and crops details to focus on fragments, using repetition to subtly alter tone and composition.
Giovanelli’s work often explores themes of temporality, performance and ritual. Her series, such as paintings of curtains or "Orbiter" where light dissolves into abstract particles, evoke narrative ambiguity and visual splendor. Through her technique of applying thin, highly pigmented paint layers, she achieves a sense of light emanating from the canvas itself, a nod to traditional painting principles.
Educated at Manchester School of Art and Städelschule in Frankfurt, Giovanelli has exhibited internationally, including solo shows at White Cube and GRIMM galleries, group exhibitions at institutions like the Hayward Gallery and AkzoNobel Art Foundation. Her works are part of prominent collections, including MOCA Los Angeles, Manchester Art Gallery and Yuz Museum Shanghai. Blending historical and modern visual languages, her paintings remain rooted in the tactile and contemplative essence of the medium.