Our presentation brings together late works by Italian artist Lucia Di Luciano (1933–2026), and drawings by Swiss artist Pascal Vonlanthen (*1957) in a rich dialogue exploring the intersections of modern abstraction and deeply personal visual languages.
Coming from distinct backgrounds, both artists develop practices in which idiosyncratic systems become instruments of an inner, poetic exploration. Beyond conventional artistic categories, their works reveal a shared pursuit of an autonomous visual language, guided by intuition and meditative processes of creation.
Pascal Vonlanthen meticulously copies letters and words. As an illiterate and neurodivergent artist, he approaches text as a visual form rather than a vehicle for meaning. Conversely, Lucia di Luciano’s abstract compositions developed in her late years evoke a form of writing without words, in which the history of abstraction merges with organic digressions into a personal visual syntax.
While one transforms letters into drawings, the other seems to write through abstract lines. In both practices, the boundary between drawing and writing dissolves, giving rise to a poetic language that exists beyond conventional systems of communication and artistic classifications.
Lucia di Luciano, (IT–1933–2026)
Lucia di Luciano was a pivotal figure in the 1960’s Italian artistic movement Arte Programmata, together with her husband Giovanni Pizzo. Since then, she has pursued an extraordinary and multifaceted artistic journey, from radical geometrical abstraction until the free and colorful works of the last years. Her recent paintings are as liberated and deconstructed as they are deeply connected to the broader history of abstraction. Lucia di Luciano’s work has been shown in numerous exhibitions in major institutions, such as the Venice Biennale (2022) or the Tate Moderne in London.
Selected Collections:
Tate Moderne, London; Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo, NO; MAMCO, Geneva; MCBA, Lausanne; National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, HR; Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation & Collection, London, UK
Pascal Vonlanthen (*1957)
Since 2014, Pascal Vonlanthen has drawn the raw material for his work from the texts, headlines and illustrations of local and international printed newspapers. As an illiterate person and neurodivergent, he interprets printed typography and text with a different point of view and brings forward a unique counter point to the long relationship between visual art and text.
Selected Collections:
MAMCO, Geneva; Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne
