Tony Luciani: Three Old Villages, Eight New Works

Loch Gallery is excited to announce the exhibition of new paintings by Tony Luciani. The exhibition also includes a special collection of four paintings which were begun as drawings in 1984 and completed in 2023.

 

Tony Luciani was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1956. Growing up in Toronto, Luciani was able to pursue the best possible creative education. He attended Central Technical School, Sheridan College, and from 1975 - 1978, the Ontario College of Art. Tony received his degree along with post-graduate study in the off-campus program in Florence, Italy. He was awarded the George A. Reid Scholarship (OCA) and was a three-time Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant recipient.

 

Upon his return from post-graduate study in Italy, Luciani left Toronto for rural Ontario and as a result, small towns and landscapes became a major source of inspiration in his work. It was also during this time, when Tony first visited his familial villages in Italy, that he began preliminary study for the collection of four paintings that is included in this exhibition. The remaining four paintings in the exhibition were completed in 2024, after Luciani returned to his familial villages. 

 

"These four paintings were born in 1984. I stayed in a tiny stone cottage in the village of Carrufo, Italy, high up in the mountains of Abruzzo, about 3 hours east of Rome. My family came from there. It was here and the surrounding villages that I discovered what it was like to be a 'real' artist. I did many drawings on location, which were to become paintings later on when I returned home to Canada. Of the dozens that were eventually realized as finished watercolours, all sold through Nancy Poole’s Studio (Loch Gallery location), I left five untouched. Fast forward to 2023, and I find them in the very same leather portfolio I used to transport my artwork back home in 1984."

 

Luciani returned to Canada with his drawings in tow, and began to paint and exhibit full time. As mentioned by the artist, he did use several drawings to execute watercolours, leaving five untouched. After years of national and international success and recognition, Tony returned to these drawings and also to his familial villages. 

 

"I returned to my three family villages in August, 2023.

This time, however, I physically walked into my art subjects. To experience again the feeling of standing at my easel creating these detailed line drawings brought back so many emotions. I so loved hearing the sounds of clucking chickens echoing throughout the old, narrow cobblestone streets, or the clanging of bells from curious goats meandering about. I remember losing a whole box of Wolff’s Carbon pencils to one fellow. I knew he liked them, because he kept coming back for more."

 

Luciani's dedication to detail is exemplified within these works. You must look closely and be attentive in your viewing of these works. You may miss the abandoned shoes or scattered nails at the bottom of a stone-riddled staircase, the life within the crumbling landscape. You might miss the intricately carved faces that embellish cracking wooden doors, a living memory etched into time. You might miss a small bouquet of red flowers at the end of a winding, unsteady staircase, or the church steeple that peeks out from stone arches. You might miss the intimate details that give context to the deep affection that Luciani has for these places. But if you look closely, you may stumble upon a sentiment, just as you would if you were to explore these villages yourself. In Luciani's work there is an element of discovery and exploration that is not only present when viewing the work, but also during the making. 

 

"As an artist, during the painting process, I get so immersed with what I’m doing that I emotionally enter my canvas. From there, I contemplate wandering around, observing my subject from different vantages and viewpoints. I walk around within the painting, touching objects and observing the light transform into shadows. The support ceases to be ‘flat art’, and crystalizes into the three dimensions of depth and space. It transcends the aesthetic to a feeling of inclusion. I become ‘one’ with the work."

The time that Luciani spent with these paintings is evident in their personal qualities. The details show a love and understanding of these villages, and an attentiveness that they deserve. When looking at preliminary drawings for these paintings, one can see a conversation emerge between artist and artwork. Each line, a call and response for meaning and understanding. As this conversation became more enveloping, an alliance was formed, and the artist and artwork became one. 

 

With these paintings, Luciani creates portraits of these villages, painting over the drawings that were completed forty years prior. As Tony layers paint over these initial drawings, he recalls his past self, these layers come together to create a complete portrait. In this way, the paintings also function as self-portraits, showing the life that Tony has lived since beginning these works. 

"My desire was to directly paint onto the drawings as intended 40 years earlier, but I wanted to do it in oil instead of watercolour. The connection was important to me, and not to transfer the images to canvas. So, with the help of transparent gesso, these four paintings were finally finished in 2023. I did keep one last drawing, just to satisfy my urge to keep it as is.

It is said that every painting an artist creates is a form of self-portrait.

With these four works, completed after four decades of avoidance, I give to you, my portrait…

…but forty years older."

 

The result of exhibiting this collection of paintings alongside four new works is a union of the artist's past and current practice, and a survey of time for these villages, Luciani's work, and Luciani himself.