Beneath the surface

The point of departure, deliberately essential, is the medium—that is, the material and the technique through which the work takes shape.
Not the subject, not the narrative, not the historical context or market value, but what physically constitutes the work, what makes it visible and at the same time profoundly conditions it.
Luana Hrom, Curator

MISSION

Our time is driven by an urgent need to bring the breath of nature back into our lives and into the way we inhabit the world.

Four women, four artists—each with distinct backgrounds, training, and materials—come together, united by a shared desire to explore the depth of the surface and to reveal the authenticity of their inner landscapes.

The project “Beneath the surface”, curated by Luana Hrom at Luma Arte Contemporanea in Orte, presents a new selection of works by Liuva Maqueira, Grazia Cucco, Nadiya Yatsulchak, and Giulia Nardone. Together, the works form a sequence that, through variations of density, texture, and contour, captures elusive nuances and fleeting impressions.

Through their research, the artists reveal the fragile yet powerful threshold between the visible exterior of the natural world and its deeper essence.

The surface thus becomes a membrane through which we read an object, an environment, an emotion—a boundary where the two-dimensional meets the three-dimensional, revealing its permeability to the gaze.

Oriana Picciolini, Curator

ARTISTS

Liuva Maqueira, a Cuban artist and one of the most compelling figures in contemporary ceramics in Umbria, has been working in Terni for over thirty years, transforming inorganic matter into living forms shaped by light.

Grazia Cucco, painter from Amelia, Umbria, her works—highly detailed miniatures—are populated by trees, insects, and flowers that immerse the viewer in a magical surrealism rooted in the ancestral visions of her native land.

Nadiya Yatsulchak, a Ukrainian artist living in Terni since 2004, her still lifes harmoniously combine a powerful expressiveness with meticulous detail, resulting in a dense, tactile visual material.

Giulia Nardone, Roman visual artist, her collages combine the delicacy of dried flowers with a nostalgic thread of memories and essences—a language shaped by recollections, suggestions, and emotions.