About Lucia Sidonio
McLeavey Gallery is pleased to present Angle of an Entrance from Ōtautahi Christchurch-based artist, Lucia Sidonio. Sidonio graduated with first class honours from the University of Canterbury in 2020 and this is her first solo exhibition in Pōneke Wellington. In a series of textured oil paintings, she explores shelter, enclosure, and comfort, and sets this against the need for freedom and escape. Sidonio's works are quiet and intimate, drawing the viewer close to small moments of beauty in the world around us.
There is an intimacy to Lucia Sidonio's paintings that begins with the way she frames her subjects. Tightly cropped, her compositions press the viewer close to the scene, as though we have stepped inside the enclosure with them. The picture plane becomes a boundary the subjects cannot cross and the viewer is quietly invited to share.
Lucia Sidonio believes that paintings work best when they invite prolonged looking, rewarding you whether you stand back or step up close, making the gallery space at McLeavey a fitting space for these quiet, intimate works.
