Painter Lupe Ficara
Self-portrait by Lupe Ficara, 2009
Artist’s Statement by Lupe Ficara
Hi,
I’m Lupe Ficara an Italian lesbian artist, now living in France. I’m mainly a painter, even if I frequently love to create mosaics, graphics, objects, and to experiment new techniques.
Being a painter is sometime difficult today, because people have lost interest in buying “traditional” artworks, because art have been “imprisoned” by the market laws and because be known or well-known today is a pant’s work! But being a lesbian painter in Italy is even more difficult! Italy is now passing through a very bad economically, politically and socially crisis. Racism, machismo and other “fun” stuff like these are growing, thanks to our politicians and to the Vatican. So homophobia is also growing.
7 years ago – just before the second Berlusconi government – I decided move to France and here I have found a more active and open-minded place to work. In my paintings I try to express my feelings about humans living in a big town, and I paint about the loneliness of people becoming more and more distanced from their towns, which are so big and over structured.
Recently I’ve started a big study on portraits. At the first, it was my intention to paint 50 portraits of lesbian during one year and then exhibit them in gay friendly galleries, lesbian festivals and cultural events. But after 6 months I started to ask myself too many questions about the portraits – how to do that series, how to brand it, what I want from a portrait, and lots of artistic questions, so I’ve decided to dedicate more then a year to my portraits. I’ve started to work on self-portraits to get the good “vibrations” and find the branded way to paint portraits.
If you want to get in contact with me about this project i.e. book an exhibition of the series or be a model, send me a mail: contact@lupeficara.com
Painting by Lupe Ficara, 2009