Lucrezia Abatzoglu: Feminarium

Through a multidisciplinary approach that spans drawing, painting and sculpture, the artist explores notions of identity, femininity and the liminal spaces that exists somewhere between reality and the imagination. Abatzoglu’s work draws on a variety of sources – from Italian Renaissance and classical sculpture to pagan mythologies – in order to create deceptively complex portraits that both repel and enchant.

The exhibition is divided into three interconnected bodies of work, which are distinguished by the following groupings: ‘sanctuarium,’ ‘sudarium’ and ‘feminarium,’ which gives the show its title. ‘Feminarium’ is a hypothetical term constructed from ‘femina’ meaning ‘female’, referring to such designated spaces in Ancient Rome that were specifically intended for women only. Through a series of figurative oil paintings, Abatzoglu expands this definition to focus on how the isolated female body has - all too often - become the object of the male gaze; her intimate yet powerful paintings subtly investigate the psychological and physical spaces into which women are forced to inhabit. 

In a number of strangely surreal paintings, Abatzoglu depicts women sitting awkwardly - yet defiantly - in shimmering cocktail glasses. Direct, confrontational and aware of their own objectification, the figures gaze seductively out to the viewer, becoming, at once, both the subject and the object. With masterful technique and an uncanny ability to depict both seduction and sadness simultaneously, Abatzoglu’s subversive portraits are a heady mix of historic convention and oneiric fantasy.