Giuditta R

Giuditta R is a draftswoman creating detailed yet expressive graphite drawings who has exhibited across Europe in countries such as Italy, Germany, Denmark, Greece, Portugal, Hungary, Austria, and internationally in the United States and Mexico. To date she has had almost 15 solo exhibitions and has been published by New York art critic Denise Carvalho, Kopenhagen magazine, and Rivel Lit No. 13 magazine. She has received a grant from the Italian Culture Institute and has been filmed on television in the United States and Mexico. Giuditta has been featured in various collections on Saatchi Art and serves as the director of Villa R. Artists Residency located in Messina, Italy.

The drawings contain high contrast and scratchy application but with great attention to detail and elements of sfumato, a gradual smoky atmosphere. With a sense of mist in the air or even an interior fog, Giuditta’s drawings often come off as mysterious and dark, almost reflecting the sense one might feel in the weird and disturbing films of David Lynch, but without the surrealism. She creates imaginative figurative scenes which communicate characters with glossy eyes and vintage attire. The people in the works are often seen trying to interact with the viewer or each other, rarely staring off into the distance. One interesting observation one may note may be the puppet-like appearance of the figures, sometimes materializing as if they were carved out of material or conveying jointed limbs as if being pulled by strings.The smears of graphite in the background creates a sense of darkness and recurrence.

Chrysalis V (pictured above) remains a drawing of intensity. The bride figure stares at the viewer with her cat-like eyes, dated hairstyle, transparent veil, and swarm of butterflies coming up underneath her arms as if they were a bouquet of flowers. Her intense, glossy gaze and heavy eye-liner creates the sense of a woman trying to engage with the viewer as if trying to communicate a message solely with her facial expression.

Me and Her (pictured above) offers an interesting take on what often appears like a marionette performance in Giuditta’s works. The figure to the left, which appears to be a puppet-like form with drawn out features such as plastic-looking eyelashes and painted red lipstick, holds a female figure to the right who looks more naturalistic. The puppet-like figure holds the naturalistic woman like a puppeteer and as if the woman to the right was a mannequin. Like many of her works, the high contrast with the sfumato gives off an eerie atmosphere and sense of mystery.

Often appearing like photographs from the early 20th century, the scenery creates a sense of imagination. Increasingly hard to tell if Giuditta creates these figures and scenery completely from her imagination or if she uses references and infuses distortions. The reason being the subjects do not appear like real people in actual life even though there remains a naturalistic application. Even the body language seems imaginative rather than observational, often containing distortions and puppet-like poses.

Giuditta R takes us on a journey through her mysterious take on figurative art. The drawings remain rich in gradation, atmosphere, nuance, and infuses figures with a sense of purpose. She is a communicator conveying a message of body language and having the audience interact with her art on a psychological level. With varying degrees of observation we may feel the subject matter may be studying the viewer and each other as much as the audience perceives the figures. Being relatively young and containing a robust resume, Giuditta R has a promising career ahead.