LIA GALLETTI
artist statement
My work is an expression of an inner journey in which I explore
the primal and simple language of the soul through abstract forms, their only
representational role being to bring forth the true colors of our feelings and emotions
at their purest. Color itself inspires me, as it has the power to communicate meaning
in two primary ways - natural associations and psychological symbolism.
It is also a universal, unifying language.
Abstract paintings reveal the soulful secrets of the universe
by reaching inside ourselves and conveying a rich and unique expression
of a sensitivity found only deep within us, identifying emotions in a timeless element.
Negative and positive are equalized, thoughts and ideas metaphorized
through vibrations of colors and shapes,
fruits of my imagination, abstractly revealed on white, canvas or paper.
As an artist I synthesize this dance between conscious and subconscious for the viewer.
biography
Born in Havana, Cuba, left with my family in 1960, and came to live in New York, where I started to paint and exhibit my work. I was exposed to abstract expressionism at that time and knew that would be my visual language, but it wasn't until many years later that my painting evolved to its abstract expression of today. Throughout my career as an artist I have experimented in all mediums and developed my own technique using acrylics on paper and canvas.
Living in Miami since 1970, worked as a graphic designer for many years. In 1983 I started exploring different painting mediums and in 1985 - 1986 studied Etching and Monoprints at the Metropolitan Museum Printmaking Workshop, in Coral Gables, Florida, experimenting extensively within those disciplines.
After going through periods of rejecting color as content, my painting at present reflects an understanding of color as a communicator of the most primitive sensitivities and an expression in itself, unfolding layers of emotions superimposed upon each other in a single time frame, as a slide of the soul. When at its most chaotic, there is an order.
At present I live in Fort Myers, Florida, where I've had my studio since 2004, participating in shows throughout the country.
some reviews
Abstraction as Liberation
These paintings are electric, their surfaces pulsating with a syncopated planar tension that draws the viewer
into the composition. The pioneers of abstraction (Kandinsky, Malevitch, Mondrian and Kupka) forged abstract
vocabularies that were grounded in a world of realities. Then came the formalist critics and divested the work
of their meanings. Galletti is very conscious of this ruptured tradition - her paintings, formally and
conceptually have meanings - they evoke the heat of daily life, the lyricism of the urban,
perhaps even the desolation of a place like Miami. They are anti-figural epiphanies.
Dr. Alejandro Anreus
William Patterson University
Wayne, NJ
Lia Galletti: A window onto the sea
...spaciously opening onto the Caribbean and saturated with drama and color, Lia Galletti's paintings are of a style totally abstract; they can be read like an experience emanating from the unconscious, the substance of which is filled with enigmatic images. The impact on the viewer is sensorial, and further, the sensation is metaphysical and intensely introspective and surreal.
Lia was born in Havana in the environment of a family of illustrators and painters (Antonio Moreno, her father, was one of the most successful of the Cuban Nostalgia) and came to the United States at a young age. She presently resides in Miami, travels frequently to New York, Washington, Chicago and Atlanta, where she participates in the cultural climates of those cities in both group and one person exhibitions. From the beginning of her career she has maintained a fundamental attitude free of weighty cultural history. Spontaneous in the application of pigments with brush, spatula or her fingers over paper or canvas, her paintings erupt into an expressionistic discourse with a burst of exhuberant colorfulness.
In analogy with the tonal variations of baroque music, that which is quintessential in her painting is the dispersion and counterpoint of light and shade.
The art of Lia Galletti is a proposal for total abstraction. It also constitutes a search for meanings of the inner self. Therefore her discourse is both an inquiry and the result of a radical dip into the subconscious. The sum of her work comes from an open, vital attitude that she has kept at a distance throughout her career from the obsolete residuals of art history, and her profound commitment to creativity. Stylistically, she has a direct link to Abstract Expressionism and the Action Painting School of New York, with a lateral approach to Surrealism. Having explored similar venues as Jackson Pollock, Helen Frankenthaler and Roberto Matta, preassimilating the teachings of Kandinsky, her iconography was developed early.
No other painter in the Cuban galaxy has achieved the degree of mastery in abstraction that comes so natural to her.
Luis Lastra
Art Critic and Historian
Cuban born artist Lia Galletti...
is one of the most prolific and controversial artists in South Florida today. My experience working with Lia in the past always revealed to me the provocative impact she has on people who come in contact with her work. Her power as seen by her judges was the power that only men convey and women are not supposed to have. The subject matter that Lia chooses more often is the deeper side of the human life condition (karma), the inner realm of life in our many levels of consciousness and actions. Lia sees, knows and understands through her art, the internal struggles and inner workings of the human experience...the self...and desires to convey this message to the viewer of her art. Her contribution to the Cuban Art Movement is a serious and major one. Ms. Galletti, like many Cuban artists, works in many mediums and is recognized by her peers as a master in printmaking and silkscreen works.
Elizabeth Ruth Johnston
Fine Art Appraiser/Curator
Miami, FL
solo exhibitions
COMING UP 2012 RECENT WORKS, Tower Gallery, Sanibel, FL
Opening Reception: February 10, 2011
2011 REFLECTIONS ON CANVAS, Alliance for the Arts, Fort Myers, FL
September 9 thru October 1, 2011
2003 INTERSTICES, Capitol Complex, Tallahassee, FL
2001 Colonial Bank Centre, Miami FL
2000 Ira Pinto Gallery, Washington DC
Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, DC
1996 WORKS ON PAPER, Lia Galletti Gallery, Coral Gables, FL
BARE, Lia Galletti Gallery, Coral Gables, FL
Art Miami '96, Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami Beach, FL
1995 Metro-Dade Cultural Resource Center, Miami, FL
1994 ART AMERICAS, Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami Beach, FL
1993 ORISHA, The Frame Centre Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica
1987 PRINTMAKING Miami-Dade Community College, Miami FL
1985 PRINTMAKING Miami Press Printmaking Workshop, Miami FL
selected group exhibitions
2011
The Doors of Opportunity, Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre, Fort Myers, FL (October 9-November 19)
SWFL Lives!, HOWL Gallery/Tattoo, Fort Myers, FL (Opening July 1)
Road Trip: Members Exhibit, Alliance for the Arts, Fort Myers, FL (Opening August 19)
Show YOURself, Arts for ACT Gallery, Fort Myers, FL (Opening January 7)
2010
The Doors of Opportunity, Sidney and Berne Davis Art Center, Fort Myers, FL
2D / 3D, Alliance for the Arts, Fort Myers, FL
2009 ABSTRACTOMICINA, Cremata Fine Art, Miami, FL
2008 8 on 8 Group Show, Maria Sonia Martin Gallery, Miami, FL
2D / 3D, Alliance for the Arts, Fort Myers, FL
OUTSIDE THE BOX, Alliance for the Arts, Fort Myers, FL
2005 Arts for Act 2005 Fine Art Auction, Harborside Event Center, Downtown Fort Myers, FL
2002 1st Salon of Cuban Art on Paper, SONO Art Gallery, New York, NY (May 17th, 2002)
2000 GROUP SHOW, Ira Pinto Gallery, Washington, DC
1999 THE ARTS CENTER, St. Petersburg, FL
20 YEARS WITH THE ARTISTS, Barbara Gillman Gallery, Miami Beach, FL
1998 18TH MINI-PRINT INTERNATIONAL, Cadaques, Spain
THE ARTFUL BOOK, Miami-Dade Public Library System, Miami, FL
SANTA FE ART CLASSIC, Santa Fe, NM
1995-1998 CARIBBEAN VISIONS: PAINTING AND SCULPTURE
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami FL
Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach CA
Center for the Arts, Vero Beach FL
Center for African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford CT
Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury VT
New Orleans Museum of Art, LA
African American Museum, Dallas TX
1993 IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER, Miami-Dade Public Library System, Miami FL
THE CARDS ARE ON THE TABLE, Florida International University, Miami FL
1992 DARMAY ART GALLERY, San Jose, Costa Rica
CASA DE LA CULTURA, San Jose, Costa Rica
GENESIS 3: Artists for AIDS Benefit, Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, FL
1991 GENESIS 2: Artists for AIDS Benefit, Metropolitan Museum of Coral Gables, Coral Gables, FL
1988 VI BIENAL IBEROAMERICANA DE ARTE, Mexico
THE KIMBERLY GALLERY OF ART, Washington DC
THE 40TH NORTH AMERICAN PRINT EXHIBITION-THE BOSTON PRINTMAKERS,
Brockton Art Museum, MA
1987 CUBAN ARTISTS IN NORTH AMERICA, National Library of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
CONTEMPORARY CUBAN ART, Metropolitan Museum of Coral Gables, Coral Gables, FL
1986 VII BIENNIAL OF SAN JUAN - LATIN AMERICAN PRINTMAKERS, San Juan, PR
selected awards
2010
The Doors of Opportunity Runner Up
Sidney and Berne Davis Art Center, Fort Myers, FL
Best In Show
2D-3D Exhibition
Alliance For The Arts, Fort Myers, FL
2007 Ocala Arts Festival Award of Distinction
FINE ARTS FOR OCALA, Ocala, FL
2006 Award of Merit
FINE ARTS FOR OCALA, Ocala, FL
1999-2000 STATE OF FLORIDA INDIVIDUAL ARTIST FELLOWSHIP
HONORABLE MENTION VISUAL ARTS/PAINTING AWARD
1988 Purchase Prize
THE BOSTON PRINTMAKERS 40TH NORTH AMERICAN PRINT EXHIBITION
Brockton Art Museum, MA
public collections
The Boston Printmakers at the Brockton Art Museum, Boston, MA
Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena, San Juan, PR
The Art Museum of the Americas at the Organization of American States, Washington, DC
selected bibliography
Transformative Expressions: the bold look of artist Lia Galletti
by Yohana de la Torre
www.gulfcoasttimes.net
LIA GALLETTI, Concha Alzola, Vanidades Continental,Year 41 Number 10, May 15, 2001
EL ARTE DE LIA GALLETTI, Carlos M. Luis, El Nuevo Herald,
Sunday, October 22, 2000
ART OF CUBA IN EXILE, Jose Gomez-Sicre,1987
Born: October 8, 1943 in Havana, Cuba
US citizen
LIA GALLETTI
copyright 2011 ©
all rights reserved
last updated
10/31/2011