Louise Giovanelli, a Manchester-based artist, gained significant recognition after her standout exhibition at Hayward Gallery in 2021. Represented by leading galleries White Cube and Grimm, she presents her first major solo show, A Song of Ascents, at the Hepworth Wakefield. Her work, focusing on reflective surfaces, heavy velvet curtains, and layered meanings, invokes themes of spiritual longing versus earthly experiences. The title reflects influences from penitential psalms and Oscar Wilde, embodying the quest for ascension and heightened states of consciousness, marrying the sacred with the profane in her artistic narrative.
"They are seductive to look at but the audience can't have them because the curtains reject everything-they will never open".
"It's taken from one of the penitential psalms, used in Catholic, Jewish and Lutheran liturgies... the idea of ascension, of reverie, and reaching a higher level, all felt fitting."
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