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Romana Londi
Romana Londi is an Italian-Irish artist based in Rome, known for her innovative approach to painting that merges gestural abstraction with material experimentation. Since graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2009, Londi has developed a distinctive practice that explores the interplay between human vulnerability, transformation, and the evolving role of the body in an increasingly technological world.
Londi’s early work includes the recto-verso series Happenstance, where paintings are executed simultaneously on both sides of unprimed canvas, and the color- changing series Sentient, Blushing (Pink as Fuck), and Jetlag.
Using light sensitive photochromic mediums that respond to light and shifting shadow, Londi’s works transcend mere representation, embodying a dynamic, “living sentiency” that reflects the fluidity and instability of contemporary existence. These sentient works engage with new materialism, the immediacy of life, where presence and absence are in constant flux.
Mimic, Tear, Ashes, 2022, oil paint, spray paint, emulsion, oil pastel, chalk, enamel, photochromic plastic on linen canvas, aluminium frame, 194 x 188 cm. Courtesy the artist & Spiaggia Libera, Paris. © Aurélien Mole
Asylum Under my Tread, 2022, oil paint, acrylic paint, photochromic film on linen canvas, 200 x 150 cm. Courtesy the artist & Spiaggia Libera, Paris. © Aurélien Mole
Echo’s Bones and Other Precipitates, 2023, oil paint and acrylic on canvas, 150 x 195 cm. Courtesy the artist & Spiaggia Libera, Paris. © Aurélien Mole
Using light sensitive photochromic mediums that respond to light and shifting shadow, Londi’s works transcend mere representation, embodying a dynamic, “living sentiency” that reflects the fluidity and instability of contemporary existence. These sentient works engage with new materialism, the immediacy of life, where presence and absence are in constant flux.
Her latest series, Jetlag, began in 2018 and serves as a reflection on “The Great Acceleration” — a conceptual exploration of how biological rhythms de- synchronize in a world dominated by digital technologies. Londi’s paintings are both poetic and critical, probing the intersections of the natural world, human form, and mechanized systems.
To the Tick of Two Clocks, 2023, UV print on photochromic film on cotton canvas, 182 x 134 cm. Courtesy the artist & Spiaggia Libera, Paris. © Aurélien Mole
To the Tick of Two Clocks, 2023, UV print on photochromatic film on canvas, 182 x 134 cm. Courtesy the artist & Spiaggia Libera, Paris. © Aurélien Mole
The Skinning of San Bartolomeo, 2023, oil paint and acrylic on canvas, photochromic film, 180 x 180 cm. Courtesy the artist & Spiaggia Libera, Paris. © Aurélien Mole
Soft Fruit Growing, 2023, UV print on photochromatic film on cotton canvas, 26 x 20 cm. Courtesy the artist & Spiaggia Libera, Paris. © Aurélien Mole
Soft Fruit Growing, 2023, UV print on Photochromic film on cotton canvas, 26 x 20 cm. Courtesy the artist & Spiaggia Libera, Paris. © Aurélien Mole
Drawing inspiration from historical iconography, modern technologies, literature and personal experience, Londi’s imagery blends organic and mechanistic forms, creating multi-layered works that capture bodies in motion and states of metamorphosis.
Her artistic process is non-linear and responsive, with the artist reacting to her own marks and gestures in a circuitous way, allowing imagery to emerge organically. This approach challenges the boundary between abstract and figurative painting, affirming that the formal elements of color, texture, and composition remain constant despite the shifting nature of the subjects.
Londi’s work confronts pressing philosophical questions about existence in the digital age, offering profound meditations on identity, technology, and the body’s place in an increasingly fragmented world
Exhibition view, « PLANET B, Climate Change and the New Sublime », Radicants Internationals, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, Palazzo Bollani, Venice, Italy, 2022. © Andrea Avezzù.
Exhibition view, « PLANET B, Climate Change and the New Sublime », Radicants Internationals, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, Palazzo Bollani, Venice, Italy, 2022. © Andrea Avezzù.
Selected Exhibitions include:
WHAT IS YOUR SUBSTANCE, WHEREOF ARE YOUMADE (That Millions of strange shadows on you Tend?), Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Brussels, 2024 ; Jetlag: Lullaby to the Tick of Two Clocks, Spiaggia Libera, Paris,2023; Planet B, Climate Change and the New Sublime, Palazzo Bollani, Venice,2022; I Am the Beat, IMMA Museum, Dublin, 2020; Gaia has a Thousand Names, Elgiz Museum, Istanbul, 2019; Mademoiselle, Centre Regional Contemporain Occitanie, D’Art Setè, 2018;
