In the following video, APA artist Monica Lazzari talks about her colourful and energetic artwork.
Watch the video or read the transcript below.
4 x 4 Artist Solos presents four different solos featuring Monica Lazzari, Rebecca Scibilia, James MacSporran and Samraing Chea, and shows online and at the Collingwood gallery until 27 June 2021 (please note the gallery is closed tentatively until Thursday 10 June as per COVID restrictions).While holding distinctive practices, their work collectively reflects the versatility of colour, imagination, narrative and pattern to speak on the energies of society and nuances of everyday life.
Monica Lazzari creates complex abstract paintings and collage incorporating bold colour fields, bright saturated colours, dot technique, abstract shapes and geometric patterns. Vibrant and multi-layered, she employs a vast colour palette with the meticulous application of media. The works are active spaces, resonating with energy.
The collection in 4 x 4 Artist Solos reflects Lazzari’s recognisable colourful, flattened and densely rendered acrylic paintings. These familiar artworks sit alongside new works on paper, including Buildings, distinctive for its delicately applied pencil linework, negative space and perspective.
While Lazarri’s images pulse with life, the artist is a firm believer in audience reception. She says, “They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But a picture doesn’t talk to you- it takes you places. It can make you feel happy, it can make you feel scared, it can make you feel lost. It has that power. Whatever the viewer wants to feel when they look, it is what’s true. There is no right or wrong. When you look at a picture, it’s how you feel.”
Lazzari has been a regular studio artist at Arts Project Australia since 2006 and has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including Home, Arts Centre Melbourne and Now the heart is filled with gold as if it were a purse, curated by Glenn Barkley, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne. Her work is held in national and international private and corporate collections. 4 x 4 Artist Solos is Lazzari’s first solo exhibition.
Browse more of Monica Lazzari’s artwork through Arts Project Australia’s online stockroom.
Monica Lazzari, Kaleidoscope, 2019, acrylic on paper, 70 x 50 cm, ML19-0006.
Monica Lazzari: This is called The Kaleidoscope. The reason I have called it this is because as you look at it – well as I look at it- it reminds me of the toy when you turn it around and things get smaller, and all the circles get tinier and it gets tighter. So, it kind of looks like that to me, as you’re turning the thing it goes in. I like the colours that I have used. I love how some of it has just this big yellow circle and then you got the blues and the rectangle then you’ve got a tiny square in the middle.
Monica Lazzari, Not titled, 2020, acrylic on paper, 50 x 70 cm, ML20-0007.
Monica Lazzari: This one I did with acrylics. It sort of reminds me of those hula hoops that you can spin around on your belly. I can’t really do it but it’s just like if somebody put a whole heap of them on the floor. That’s what they would look like to me. So that’s why I did it. But I haven’t named it little hula hoops because I didn’t want people to see those as hula hoops, I want them to see them the way they want to see them.
Monica Lazzari, Buildings, 2020, greylead pencil; marker; paint pen; pencil on paper, 70 x 50 cm, ML20-0009.
Monica Lazzari: This one is actually my favourite one in the show as it is not normally what I do. It reminds me of buildings, like its layer over layer. I love how some of the lines are crossing over and going under. I just think it’s just so fascinating, I can’t stop looking at it. I just love the colours on it. My uncle has actually bought it, so every time I go there I’ll get to see it.
Love from the Studio is a series of interviews and articles bringing you behind the scenes of Arts Project Australia. Monica Lazzari was interviewed by Arts Project Australia’s communications co-ordinator Tahney Fosdike.
