At the heart of Giovanelli\u2019s dazzling paintings of closely cropped film stills, curtains, hair and clothing is an obsession with contemporary modes of devotion. Despite now identifying as an atheist, the artist\u2019s religious upbringing translates into a reverence for the aesthetics of worship \u2013 although now, in her paintings, pop culture and celebrities have largely replaced the religious icons of the past. \u201cI\u2019m trying to show people that even though they might not think they believe in a God, they still need this type of worship,\u201d she says. \u201cWe have this need to aspire and to look at something and point to something that we consider to be bigger than ourselves.\u201d With its hallucinatory, glowing facade, Decades is just that \u2013 a bold melding of past and present that asks us to surrender to something bigger than ourselves, if only just for a moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Below, Louise Giovanelli talks about contemporary modes of devotion, her obsession with curtains, and the alchemy of painting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Violet Conroy: Why did you decide to work with this church for this commission?\u00a0<\/p>\n Louise Giovanelli: My paintings touch on a lot of religious themes and ideas around iconography, devotion and contemporary modes of worship, so I was selected as an artist who could potentially work in sympathy with the church.\u00a0I\u2019ve never made a sculpture or done any public art, but I just tried to think of it as an expanded painting. A curtain seemed fitting, since it\u2019s a motif that I keep returning to in my work.<\/p>\n VC: Tell me more about the curtain, and this idea of an \u2018expanded painting\u2019?\u00a0<\/p>\n LG: This curtain was based on a series of paintings that I recently made called Decades, for my show at the Hepworth Wakefield. The curtains in the series are based on a working men\u2019s club in Manchester, where I live. I\u2019m interested in all the contexts in which curtains arise, from the high-brow, theatrical, performative venues to the shady nightclubs and bars and working men\u2019s clubs. There\u2019s a democratic nature to curtains, how they can exist across this span of time. This work is a composite photograph of the curtain in situ, made with a very high-res camera. The lights are also very important, to make it glow. That\u2019s something I consider in painting all the time \u2013 the light and the luminosity.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to show people that even though they might not think they believe in a God, they still need this type of worship\u201d \u2013 Louise Giovanelli\u00a0<\/p>\n VC: How do you approach light in your paintings?\u00a0<\/p>\n LG: There\u2019s something about the challenge of rendering light, and a kind of alchemy involved with oil paint. I learned from the old masters how to try and render these things. How does this artist manage to capture velvet, fur or shiny things like cutlery and jewellery? Part of why we\u2019re drawn to these paintings is because there\u2019s a kind of disbelief \u2013 paint is just mud. That is a type of magic.\u00a0<\/p>\n Light has always been a fundamental part of my practice. I try to make things that are glowing, which also has to do with the religious aspect. So much of Catholicism and Christianity is based on iconography, looking at things that are glowing, shiny and dazzling. We need to look to something that sparkles, so I try to do that in my paintings in whatever way I can.<\/p>\n VC: You\u2019ve been painting curtains for a long time now. What first attracted you to them as a subject?\u00a0<\/p>\n LG: My initial fascination with curtains was derived from art history and the rendering of fabric. I\u2019m fascinated by how curtains change people\u2019s behaviour. At my first show with White Cube, I had some very large diptych curtain paintings and the amount of selfies that people would take in front of them \u2026 White Cube told me that people were coming in and getting changed into outfits in the toilets and coming back to take photos.\u00a0<\/p>\n When I moved from Wales to Manchester, I became fascinated by the curtains in working men\u2019s clubs and what they stood for in these communities. People do karaoke and bingo in front of them. It gives people their license to have five minutes in the limelight on a weekend, or to sing their hearts out and have a few pints.\u00a0Curtains make people feel like celebrities. It will be interesting to see how people interact with the new commission. I hope it slows people down and that they look [at it]. It\u2019s got this kind of gravitational feel.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a>
![\"Decades](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/467227.jpeg\")
Decades by Louise GiovanelliPhotography by Damian Griffiths<\/p>\n<\/a>
![\"Louise](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/467220.jpeg\")
Louise Giovanelli, Decades, 2024\u00a9 DACS 2025. Photo \u00a9 White Cube (Annik Wetter)<\/p>\n
![\"Louise](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/467225.jpeg\")
Louise Giovanelli, Vanitas, 2022\u00a9 DACS 2025. Photo \u00a9 White Cube (Ollie Hammick). Courtesy of the artist, White Cube and GRIMM, Amsterdam | New York<\/p>\n