Lunas is a body of work created between January and July 2022 in Oaxaca, Mexico. Adelfio was influenced by the material culture in Oaxaca. Using oil pastels on raw linen, she conjures the textiles and colors so prevalent in her Mexican experience. This materiality harmonizes with her interest in symbols and spirituality in painting that is rooted in the rational and the subconscious.

Luna Madre is a series of metal plate etchings executed in Oaxaca, Mexico, in 2022-23.

16.5” x 20.75”/42 cm x 54 cm.

“Origini” is a work in progress. The installation includes houses in plexiglass of all sizes with blown glass globes on blue velvet bases. The conceptual piece states, in visual terms, that the Earth is home to all. The enigma of the installation is that the house encompasses the earth, and yet it is the earth that is our home.

Large format metal plate etchings inspired by the traditions of graphic art and graffiti that adorn the city of Oaxaca. The urban display is re-contextualized as a series of gateways to new realities.

Symbols from our past and Collective Memory are central to Jungian psychology and to our human experience as we relate to one another. In this public commission, the artist combines her sensitivity to climate change with her interest in a collective subconscious. Also at play is a nod to the History of Art and Hokusai’s Wave.

Paper and ink

ARTIST STATEMENT

Collective Memory is a collection of work that combines architecture, literature, drawing, science, and sculpture.  The columns represent a connection to other populations and people through major works of art. This is fundamental to the continuum of cultural patrimony.  Not only is architecture beautiful, but the buildings are imbued with the spirits of those who lived, worked, and worshipped there. Literature is not just a story, but a connection to the commonality of our life on earth as human beings, no matter where and when we live and work. Art is the pillar of our humanity; without it, we collapse.

The aspect of artistic heritage that has a powerful magnetic pull for me personally is more ethereal. It is the collective unconscious, present in the abstract in the form of thought and energy, but made more concrete through the gifts left by the artists, architects, authors, and poets throughout history.

This collective unconscious, recorded in artistic achievements, creates a  connection to other times and cultures and takes us out of our current time/space reality. My large installations are loosely based on the Greek temples of Sicily. Each column that I construct shows reverence to the great writers, thinkers, and artists that have lived before us and reminds us not only of our connection to them, but of our own potential in our version of the present.

The columns range from 6–12 feet in height. They are constructed with heavy printmakers’ paper.  After the paper is cut, I copy passages from the words of the chosen artist, author, architect, or philosopher with an ink pen, sharpie, or sepia ink. This process is very liberal, with license given to the accidents of ink spills and smudges.  At this point, I sometimes add symbols overlaying the writing. Here I use a variety of media including collage, watercolor, pencil, or ink. When the writing and drawing are complete, I brush encaustic over the entire surface of the piece. This process, historically used in painting, laminates and protects the paper and also adds a third intriguing dimension to the surface of the piece. I then wrap the paper around a core (from the Latin, cuore, heart) to erect a column. Finally, I tie the column with wire, string, or rope both to hold the piece and to add contrast and visual stimulus to it. They are at once contemporary and classical.

Memory Wall I and Memory Wall II take symbols from my own Italian Mediterranean ancestry. Cast in glass, the components are repeated, just as in our own memories and dreams, certain objects are repeated. While different symbols are significant for different people, they are always rooted in the place and time and values of our education. Hence, while individually meaningful, they are always also a part of our Collective Memory.

Puertas de mi alma is a series of large format lithographs created in collaboration with La Buena Impresión in Oaxaca, Mexico. Abstract forms and an expressive use of tusche assert the overlapping relationship of time and space.

Corona Chronicles is a series of drawings executed on the poignant May 24, 2020 issue of the New York Times that commemorated the marker of 100,000 deaths in the United States due to Coronavirus. Life and Death are juxtaposed in live plants/dead leaves, in music/silence, in writing/blank page, in an empty chair that still feels the presence of a body, and in time passing/time standing still. Memory and the fleeting quality of life play prominently.

‘Il Foglio” is a series of Italian drawings executed as a parallel to the “Corona Chronicles” series drawn on the New York Times and other United States newspapers. The drawings were made in 2021, as some optimism was born around the COVID 19 vaccination and a slight return to normalcy. “Il Foglio”, the title to the newspaper, is also a play on words, as the word also means “sheet”, as in a sheet of paper on which to draw. The series records daily life, plays on past and present, and is a tribute to daily objects and daily activities in the artist’s life which are common to all and hopefully also resonate with the viewers.

Fuente is an etching portfolio created in collaboration with Studio Graficá Zanate in Oaxaca. The imagery is drawn from the city’s ubiquitous water registers that form a sort of civic graphic language. The portfolio underscores both the rich tradition of the graphic arts in Mexico and the fragile relationship between water and urban life.

Cast glass, wax, gold leaf

Innocent Objects interrogates the power of objects, derived through the meaning that humans give to them throughout life. The sculptures allude to cultural contributions made by literature and architecture. The use of glass symbolizes through its hardness the permanence of artistic contributions, and through its transparency their intellectual and spiritual form. 

Glass

Luisa Adelfio's sculpture in cast glass interrogates the power of objects, derived through the meaning that humans give to them throughout life. The work alludes to the magnitude of cultural contributions made by science, literature, and art. Glass is the perfect vehicle for the ideas expressed in Adelfio's work. Its hardness represents the permanence of cultural contributions, and its transparency the intellectual and spiritual nature of thoughts and ideas.

“The Periodic Table” series is based on the book of the same name by Primo Levi.

Each painting is an acute observation of everyday objects, normally overlooked, that acquire significance as the building blocks of our daily lives at home during the coronavirus quarantine. The series refers linguistically to the abbreviations of the Periodic Table of the Elements, the chemical building blocks of our daily physical existence.