Fragments. Shards. Tiny particles that don’t fit together Mismatched codes, Ironically similar In our flaws and lacks
We walk, but we don’t question the journey. We don’t understand the path, It seems deprived of destination and purpose. We just carry on, with or without legs With or without eyes. We just follow silent orders Anonymously in the crowds We dare not to stand out of norm, of compliance We can’t stop Catch our breath. Disrupt traffic, Rest. We succumb to the steep climb. Hopping that the unbridled descent will shorten the path, spare us, somehow.
We walk, breathe, we eat and sleep when possible. We obey inevitably. We are all besieged. Inside and outside all the walls in this world. We are patient and we go mad We wait, and we hope that something will change Someone will save us Anything will happen Besides the pain Despite the fate Beyond the insanity Above the oppression Under the sun We are scattered all over the place Living lawful lies Defying absurdities Coping with what is. But what is Is way less than we deserve
We dream of surviving chaos and catastrophe Hoping our fate would heal and redeem us. We surrender to time Holding to the pieces that are long gone Whipping the dust off our remains wipping dry tears off our eyes We continue, filled with shivering hope and whatever is left of our sacred innocence.
Luciana Mariano (c)
Waiting – acrylics on fine Belgian linen – 180×215 cm
Painting done during the Serlachius Residency in Mänttä, Finland, between March and June 2025.
A atriz Fernanda Montenegro fará uma leitura extra do texto “Cerimônia do Adeus”, da filósofa francesa Simone de Beauvoir, expoente do feminismo, no dia 18 de agosto (18/7) no Parque Ibirapuera, na zona Sul de São Paulo (SP).
O espetáculo lembra a pintura “Frida e Angela tomando chá (ou café) na casa de Simone”, de Luciana Mariano. Pelo título, somos levados a uma jornada por três mitos que discutem a condição feminina. A escritora Simone de Beauvoir (1908 – 1986), ao que sabemos dona da casa da cena, tem uma influência significativa no pensamento feminista, principalmente pelo livro “O Segundo Sexo” (1949), que trata da opressão contra as mulheres.
Do lado esquerdo da mesa, está a pintora mexicana Frida Kahlo (1907 – 1954), célebre não só pelos seus retratos e autorretratos e obras inspiradas na natureza e na cultura local, mas pelas manifestações, na vida e na arte, de valorização da própria identidade e da liberdade de gênero na conservadora sociedade local.
Do lado direito, encontra-se a professora norte-americana Angela Davis (1944), filósofa socialista que alcançou notoriedade mundial na década de 1970 como integrante do Partido Comunista dos EUA e dos Panteras Negras, importante movimento de militância pelos direitos das mulheres e contra a discriminação social e racial em seu país.
A pintura inclui uma solitária vela na mesa, que dialoga com o foco de luz na calçada do lado de fora da casa; Frida com um gato, escritos em inglês no chão, relógio na parede, livros de cunho libertário na estante, um retrato de Sartre, que viveu uma relação afetiva com Simone, fumando cachimbo na parede, e o piso ligado ao mobiliário por jogos visuais em marrom.
A imagem junta dois ícones do movimento feminista conversando em uma mesa muito bem posta em que curiosamente há bule, mas não xícaras de chá. Esse jogo de presenças/ausências se dissemina pela obra, tendo como ápice a falta da dona da casa anunciada no título. É desses mistérios e da silenciosa conversa entre as protagonistas que a obra se alimenta.
Oscar D’Ambrosio @oscardambrosioinsta Pós-Doutor e Doutor em Educação, Arte e História da Cultura, Mestre em Artes Visuais, jornalista, graduado em Letras,crítico de arte e curador.
Article by Professor Dr. Oscar D´Ambrosio on Brazilian news channel.
Opening of the exhibition: Wednesday 1 May, 14 – 17
Spring, the moment that all Finnish residents have been waiting for, brings light and color back to their hearts and minds. The colors, the variations of light and shadow in art, partly unite and separate the works of Kikka, Minna and Luciana. However, the atmosphere and the playful, naive outlook on life create common paths for these friends in the world of art. Individually, their art differs, but combined like this, it evokes the same warm, springtime atmosphere. This exhibition will certainly immerse you in the playfulness and joy of the Finnish spring.
About the artists:
Minna Lehväslaiho is an illustrator, naive artist, art teacher, and scientist from Kauniainen. She likes to create happy art, and in her paintings even houses are happy and kind. Minna’s preferred media are acrylics, ink, and watercolors. Minna is a member of Finnish Naive Artists, Kuvittajat, and Freelance Graafikot. A two-time postcard artist of the year, she loves to illustrate postcards and postage stamps.
Born in 1971 and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, Luciana Mariano is the third generation of naive artists in her family. Everyone around her did some art: grandmother, uncles, mother, but only as a hobby. She made a career in the corporate market and painted only in her spare time. Until she was 38, feeling ashamed of her childish trait, she discarded everything she painted immediately after finishing. In 2008, her production became more intense, leading to her first exhibition. Since then, she has been showing and selling her art in many countries around the world. In 2018, she moved to Finland, and in 2023, she became a Finnish citizen. She is now devoting herself full-time to restarting her career in Europe. Finland is finally the place she loves to call “her forever home”.
Kikka Nyrén: I paint with acrylics on canvas. Besides paintings, I also create sculptures in ceramics. In my paintings the world is at peace. With my art, I seek connection with strangers. We are different, which could make us rich if we choose so. I believe humans should respect nature (which we are part of), instead of destroying the place we live in. I believe animals are our brothers and sisters. My bright colors assure that there will be spring after the long and gray winter. Born in 1951 in Helsinki, Finland. Currently living in Lahti, Finland.
Friends from Helsinki: all invited! It will be a pleasure seeing you there!
The rupture. It can be a war, a divorce, a deception or any reason to relocate. A new job, a new love, a new life. They loved music and they had a story prior the rupture but it no longer works, no longer serves its purpose; it is time leave the wreckage behind and embark on a journey of reconstruction. Heart and objects may be broken. It is never easy to leave what once was your safe ground but it is necessary to take chances towards a new beginning, towards any possibility of being whole again.
*This work and collection are available for acquisition at Maksla XO Gallery, in Riga, Latvia.
1This collection consists in 12 pieces, made during a 2 months residency at Serlachius Museum Residency in February-March 2023. All pieces are connected and they are a result of a research and deeper thought about what it means to leave, depart, immigrate, flee, relocate, move, change, restart. If you are leaving your known home and world behind, for any reason, you may experience some of this feelings. Maybe you are relocating for a new job or for love; perhaps you are moving because of a new opportunity, a loss of job, a divorce; or if your country is at war, if you need to escape for better life conditions, or any reason at all…some of this feelings meet everyone. Leaving, for any given reason, deploys a chain of feelings that are common for most situations. It is a kind of mourning, first the overwhelmed feeling of loss, then the various steps that makes you cope with the change, then acceptance and understanding, then adaptation and peace. Not necessarily all those feelings but surely some of them. And it is a very particular experience with common perceptions and feelings. I hope you can identify some of them, but specially I hope you can, after a harsh storm, find yourself again and feel that you found home.
Often we meet and greet people on automatic gear. There is no eye contact, no hugs, not even a hand shake. We talk but it’s all rhetorical speech, we have no intention to really know how the person is doing, what is making him/her happy or miserable. We blame it on our scarsety of time, not without it being true; the age of information has sucked our lifes to the scary times described by the genius Charles Chaplin on Modern Times. We live mechanically, working to surviving and surviving to work. Social Media have very little to do with socializing and even less on being a media, it is more like a dead end burden we feel obliged to attend and respond to. We are being slaved by our cepllphones. Special moments have been neglected to second or third priority, if at all a priority. We now get emotional by watching tiny videos on tiny screens, just before continuing all the meaningless compulsory activities that took over our days and lifes. It feels like we have no choice. We are exhausted and it feels like everyone else is living a better life that the one we are. It is difficult to choose what we want when we have to do what we must. The new phone, the new car, the new next thing that will grant us the new debt, but not the peace we should be gaining. Most of us are not even struggling about the fancy things, the majority of humanity is still trying to figure out where they will sleep tonight or what their next meal will be, if it will at all be. Where did we go wrong? And how to step out of this madness? Few of us have the luxury to plan ahead. Only for today I know what to do: I will paint. And tonight, for sure, I will watch Modern Times. It seems that the fella knew what he was playing about. Art has the answer, and hopefully it will redeem us.
Art: Goof old days – 30×40 – 2023 – In exhibition at Naivistit Iittalassa.
Some days are like that. We realize our talents, but we are also well aware of our limitations. We are safe and sound, but we feel trapped and paralyzed. We observe the fine details, the beauty, the harmony that surrounds us and yet, despite all the light, we are still haunted by our uncertainties, kind of a sweet surrender to our secret darkness and self-sabotaging mechanisms. It’s a battle, but it’s also a dance. Life is an ephemeral act, an overwhelming work of art that defies time. Time is perennial, while life is fragile. Art is the generous part of us that continues to sing through time, long after our voices are gone.
Self awareness and care. When you own your flaws and master your limiting beliefs, what is left within you is the power of resillience and the infinite possibilities of art.
This painting is the final result of a week in happiness.
I was invited to an Artistic Residency at Lysice Castle in the Czech Republic. One whole week of painting, interacting with my peers, being allowed to exercise my art while thriving in a beautiful environment, full of history, love and magic.
In the first day I sat there surrounded by amazing talented artists, feeling shy and insecure, over excited and having no idea about what to paint. My creative process usually goes like this: I have many paintings inside of me but I need to quiet my mind before they start pouring out. It was a little intimidating at first because I have been a fan of many of the colleagues that where there, for years. And the artist impostor syndrome inside of me said… ”No matter what you paint, it will never be as good as their work”. Insecurity and cruel hidden monsters under our beds are a sad pattern in the life for many, me included. But luckily I allowed myself to just do what I have been doing for the past 45 years… just play. Art is not about being anything, it’s about making and enjoying it.
Art is indeed bedded in the painters soul. It runs through my veins as it did for my ancestors, so I should not be afraid of stating out my truth, whatever it is. Just enjoying by doing it. It was not a competition, it was rather a beautiful opportunity to create something simple, having fun without any pretensions. My colleagues showed me the way and their presente became my inspiration.
I started 3 paintings out of immaculate blank canvasses, in this beautiful place, surrounded by loving, talented friends. It felt incredible. The kind of happiness that we only hear in the end of fairytales. There was music, laughter, good food, peacefulness to paint, perfect days which should be the creative nectar for any living artist… And I was there, fully present, living this experience.
The paintings were flowing quite instinctively and I was having blessed fun. When I first realized what I was painting it was too late for changing it. Cats and lovers??? How kinky is that?! Why am I painting such a silly, kinky little story? It was my first time in the Czech Republic and I had no idea if the subject was at all accepted, it they were too uptight to understand the fun and joke behind such a theme. I started panicking a little… will this be too weird? Then I asked my friends and specially one of my favorite artists ever, Czech painter Jiří Vidlák (check his amazing work!) and he comforted me: “You are in one of the freest countries you could ever be, no worries about it!” And then I knew that it was not a shocker and my free creation was in good, safe hands.
In fact , when I finished, it was the chosen work to be donated to the Castle’s collection, proving his point that in there art is respected as an instrument of free speech, expression and creativity. In the end I realized that that piece had nothing to do with kinky, but plenty of woman empowerment and right of choice. Plenty of pleasure and fun without the guilt of disapproval. Cats and lovers is the symbol of believing in the power of doing anything that grows naturally in you instead of denying your inner calls. Art is just like that. If you do it for pleasing others you will end up pleasing no one.
Stick to your truth. Have fun with it. Be considerate to others. Be kind. Give less importance to ego and more power to collectiveness. Create freely. Believe in free narratives. Allow things not to be perfect…and you will find perfection of the wholeness. We are all broken pieces of a bigger broken plan that succeeded. In this magical adventure I understood that reality is indeed surreal. Love is everywhere when you ignore the fears, overbearing ego, need for approval and attention. Art is freedom.
Thank you Lysice for this beautiful opportunity. All the parts involved, you were essencial for the perfection of these days. Děkuji Zámek Lysice, Martina Rudolfová, Vladimír Jandasek, Ladislav Pukl, Zvonko Eder for the invitation, reception and impeccable experience. Thank you for all the kind people in the Castle and Hotel that made our days so special and easy. Thank you for my fellow colleagues that granted us all with such a beautiful creative week: Adzana Modlitbova, Alexandra Detinská, Alexia Molino, Dáša Vávrová, Dusan Chaloupka (and his lovely wife), Jiří Vidlák, Kikka Nyrén, Marion Alexandre, Minna Lehväslaiho, Rado Jarábek, Varsha Rajput and Zuza Novotná. You are all my shining stars 🌟 ⭐️ 💫
We are moved by our passions. But we must make sure our passions also hold some humanistic, altruistic values, otherwise it’s all about our egoic instincts. Building ourselves requires a myriad of chemicals, combined in such a way that we become the best version of what this existence allows us to be. We are a rare combination of beauty and disgrace, knowledge and despise, kindness and monstersities. And we have to struggle to accept the ugly and let prevail the good in us. We disguise well and most times not. We are demonic angels of ourselves and what we give to the world is never enough, compared with what we get. There is no balance… and yet, that´s all we need.
Once again I reccour to polarities, extreams, opposites, extremities.
In my personal life the peace I always dreammed of; beauty, harmony, love and simplicity.
In the world evil, greediness, injustice, hate, disgust, stupidity, cruelty.
I don’t understand and I also don’t accept such dispairity. It is not easy to find balance between these two realities. It is impossible to feel happy and at ease inside when you know the world is burning down and falling apart in the outside. When does it break even? How does it change? Where does it end? How long more should we be endure the pain og this sick, unfair, twisted world? How do we sleep at night knowing that someone is hurting, hungry, suffering, drowning?
How do we cope?
How to survive?
We find a way to scream in silence of art.
PEACEFUL ROUTINE – Acrylics on canvas – 40×50 – 2018 – Luciana Mariano (c)
luciana mariano 