Louisa Gagliardi was born in Sion in 1989. She graduated in graphic design from ECAL (École cantonale d’art de Lausanne) in 2012 and now lives and works in Zurich.

Her practice moves between painting, graphic design and digital image-making. Each work begins with an intuitive hand-drawn sketch, which she then develops in Photoshop, the computer mouse becoming an extension of her brush. Through experimentation, the composition slowly takes shape, until the finished image is printed onto a PVC panel. She then adds texture with layers of gel, latex, glitter, nail polish and paint. A tension emerges between the smoothness of the printed image and the thick, tactile layers.

Gagliardi’s work explores the hyperconnectivity of contemporary life, where the constant flow of images and messages contrasts with a growing sense of isolation. Windows and doors have become key patterns in her visual language, creating a tension between intimacy and exposure to the outside gaze. Her figures spy on others as much as they are spied on, drawing the viewer, almost unwittingly, into this play of gazes and surveillance.

Architecture becomes an impassable threshold, holding the figures in an eternal moment of suspension.