Marianna Lourba: «Spring Equinox» @Roma Gallery

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ROMA GALLERY presents the first solo exhibition by Marianna Lourba. Made over the last two years, the works that make up the “Spring equinox” exhibition are structured by combinations of colours and shapes. Prevailing is a semi-circular shape with a bottleneck, which dresses up in many forms: depending on its position, it might be a woman’s hair, body, or face, two bodies about to come together, or two faces on the cusp of kissing. In the work that lends its title to the exhibition and signals the date of its opening (21 March 2024), the same shape resembles a drawn curtain, allowing the contrast of day and night, of light and darkness, to be seen.

Lourba’s images have no beginning and no end – one complements another, takes part in the other’s world, with grace, balance, musicality, harmony and rhythm.

The colours in her works express the distinctiveness of the Greek landscape, as it has been inscribed on our senses and our consciousness from the time of Homer until the present day. A dark red denotes the sunset (“Crimson iris”) and wine (“Oenops”), while blue – the trademark of Greece – the sky and sea. The titles given to the painting constructions reveal the relationship of art with the Greece of myth and experience. The viewer comes across mythical islands (“Aeaea”) and ships (“Argo”), deities/nymphs of Greek mythology (“Pleiades”, “Alcyonides”), forms that allude to swollen sails and the white-washed domes of Cycladic churches. The sea is ever present (“Saline water”), everything takes place beside it (“By the sea”). The artist reminds us that we are totally dependent on that blue, on the sea that surrounds us.

Lourba’s constructions are made up of layers of wooden surfaces painted in acrylics. In some works, the artist also uses paper, while in others she incorporates LED lights. Her sculptures, on the other hand, look like they might be maquettes for larger constructions, destined for the public space. The radiant “Aeolus” is ready to welcome the wind. The “Body” sways, revealing its feminine curves. Consisting of three vertical surfaces, a black one at the centre and two white on either side, framing it symmetrically, this stylised nude combines sensuality with severity. Finally, “Opposite”, which converses visually and chromatically with “Spring equinox”, is a lovely synopsis of the concept of attraction (between identical bodies, positioned differently), which is characteristic of most of Lourba’s works.

Marianna Lourba was born in Athens in 1980. She holds an undergraduate degree in Art & Design from Middlesex University, London, and complete her postgraduate studies in Visual Communication and Design at the IED (Instituto Europeo di Design) in Milan. To date, she has taken part in 20 group exhibitions and held 5 solo shows globally. She has been the recipient of distinctions and awards by the DESTE Foundation and other prominent cultural organisations and companies. She has been collaborating with the Benaki Museum’s Art Shop since 2012. She has taught Art & Design at a private college in Athens since 2013, alongside being the Creative Director of the contemporary art workshop Apolyto Creative Spot. Her works are part of important private collections in Greece and internationally.

She lives and works in Athens.