Luciana Mariano

Fragments

We are in pieces.

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.

Finding Unity

10/12

The 10th painting of 12 series Finding Home is called Finding Unity.

They are now in the same room, but they still don’t share the same table. Timing is still different, understandings are still diverse, but they are now facing each other; communication is established, it starts to be comfortable, less awkward, they explore the common ground to find unity. A new culture takes time to sink in and become familiar, it mixes with one’s own repertoire and experiences, it doesn’t invade, it invites; it doesn’t impose, it approaches by friendly exchange and acceptance. Finding home takes effort, curiosity, open mind, intention, will. Finding home requires purpose and love.

Luciana Mariano©

The “Finding Home” serie can be seen at Maksla XO Gallery in Riga, Latvia.

https://www.instagram.com/maksla_xo_gallery

Follow me on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/lucianamarianoart

The Maze

Life is a maze, an amazing trip. A sure destination without a timetable, just a limited, unpredictable time to go across. Dead ends, swirls and turns. Sweet meetings and sad farewells. You can walk bare feet or fly, but you can’t escape. You may as well enjoy the ride and pay attention to the signs along the way. Beauty and poetry is not always given, but can always be found there. Serendipity, chances, possibilities on every corner, though it depends on your deliberate intention to find those. There is no right or wrong ways, every walk will bring you forward, even if you feel stuck, even when you walk in circles or if you don’t walk at all. Time drives the way and takes you to what you need to see, learn, live. Happiness it is definitely a choice, an intent and decision to be perceived and found throughout the way.

A vida é um labirinto, uma viagem incrível. Um destino seguro sem horário, apenas com um tempo limitado e imprevisível para atravessar. Becos sem saída, redemoinhos e reviravoltas. Doces encontros e tristes despedidas. Você pode andar descalço ou voar, mas não pode escapar. Você também pode aproveitar o passeio e prestar atenção às placas ao longo do caminho. A beleza e a poesia nem sempre são dadas, mas sempre podem ser encontradas ali. O acaso, as chances, as possibilidades estão em cada esquina, embora dependa da sua intenção deliberada de encontrá-las. Não existem caminhos certos ou errados, cada caminhada o levará adiante, mesmo que você se sinta preso, mesmo quando ande em círculos ou nem ande. O tempo conduz o caminho e te leva ao que você precisa ver, aprender, viver. A felicidade é definitivamente uma escolha, uma intenção e uma decisão a ser percebida e encontrada ao longo do caminho.


The Maze of Life is in exhibition at Malva Museum, Lehti, Finland. In the collective exhibition “Destinations”, curated by Veikko Halmetoja, until November 2024.

Kevään Iloa / Spring Joy

Kevään iloa / Spring joy

Minna Lehväslaiho, Luciana Mariano, Kikka Nyrén

2. – 19.5.2024

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.

https://minna.co

https://instagram.com/minnalehvaslaiho

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”.

https://lucianamariano.wordpress.com

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!

Opening: 01.05, from 2 til 5pm.

Under the waters of emotion

2/12

The second piece of this series is about emotions. It is a flood of feelings that seems like drowning, both in thoughts and in material things. What is lost, how will I survive this, what goes and what stays, are some of the questions that invade heart and occupy mind of someone that is about to move, change, relocate, flee, immigrate. The sensation of oddity, the heaviness and lightness of the things that you know so well but are not, or no longer are, a part of you; things and that you want, that you feel you can´t live without, but you can´t carry.
The water is the element that composes most of our human body, water is a part of us, brings us to life, we depend on it and it also can kill us. Under the waters of emotion is that overwhelming feeling of confusion, when what is you and what looks like a part of you are separating. It can be an opportunity of catching new breath but it can also mark a transition that feels like birth or like the death of somethings. If you are under water you need to escape in a hurry to survive, If water is slowly flooding your known space you need to evacuate and leave most things behind, if water is your playground you can plunge into it and then later enjoy the memories it granted you. There are uncountable possibilities of how and what the waters can mean for each story of immigration. Between the lines we all experience some common emotions and milestones on this ocean of possibilities. We are islands surrounded by sea. And each tempest writes a different story on this brief adventure of life.

Under the waters of emotion
60×90 cm – 2023 – Acrylics on canvas
Available for viewing and sales at MakslaXO Gallery, Riga, Latvia.

Luciana Mariano

…and they loved music.
…and they loved music.

1 / 12

First painting:

“ …and they loved music.”

60×90 – acrylics on linen – 2023

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.

https://makslaxogalerija.lv

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.

Old Times
Good old days - 30x40 - 2023

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.

Luciana Mariano ©

Lysice Castle

The cat in the room – Lysice Castle Collection – 2023

Another beautiful week at the wonderful Lysice Castle, in the Czech Republic. Institutions that appreciate naive art and want to compose their collection with quality and respect for the art and the artists. A week to be remembered, painting in the beautiful castle, among an amazing group of naive artists, being cared and pampered by the association with lovely outings, delicious food, fun gatherings. Thank you to the organisers, the sponsors, the members of the association, the artists and friends that we meet there and keep in the heart forever. Děkuji, kiitos, thank you, grazie, mercì.

Humanity?

I am not sure where we went wrong.

We see people but not all are humane.

What happened to peace, to harmony, to respect, to solidarity, to empathy? What happened to love?

There is injustice in each and every country, continent. Events so bizzarre that we doubt not only our capacity to love, but the human capacity to think.

We must re-think and re-evaluate our human attitudes towards the planet and towards each other. We are walking away from the humane society we should be evolving to be. We are becoming something else and it doesn´t look good.

We should be more like nature, more like the ecossistems that surrounding us, because there we can see that what doesnt comply to the laws of life and love, is doomed to extintion.

………….

Não tenho certeza de onde erramos.

Vemos pessoas, mas nem todas são humanas.

O que aconteceu com a paz, com a harmonia, com o respeito, com a solidariedade, com a empatia? O que aconteceu com o amor?

Há injustiça em cada país, continente. Acontecimentos tão bizarros que duvidamos não só da nossa capacidade de amar, mas da capacidade humana de pensar.

Devemos repensar e reavaliar nossas atitudes humanas em relação ao planeta e uns aos outros. Estamos nos afastando da sociedade humana que deveríamos estar evoluindo para ser. Estamos nos tornando outra coisa e isso não parece bom.

Devemos ser mais como a natureza, mais como os ecossistemas que nos rodeiam, porque ali podemos ver que o que não obedece às leis da vida e do amor, está fadado à extinção.

Luciana Mariano ©

©Art: When it starts to rain I – acrylics on canvas – 50×70 cm – 2022.

O[d]d | arts.
©Odd flowers, 2022 -work in exhibition and sale at Naivistit Ittalassa / Finland

O[d]d | aRt.

Odd flowers

for odd times

The oddity of perceptions

Who watches, who is watched?

When, How, Why?

Who?

For whom?

What’s new, what is old

What’s odd?

Color or shape?

Reality or invention?

Art or work?

Lost or found?

Who plays?

Who’s played?

O

D

d

Ends.

All arts are political acts.

🥕

Luciana Mariano ©