Bella Blake, director of nomadic gallery and art advisory THE TAGLI, is Abatzoglu’s champion for the Wick. THE TAGLI recently featured the artist’s work in their group exhibition, Somatechnics. “Lucrezia’s work embodies a rare and powerful authenticity that is unmistakably hers. There is an art in creating something that for a viewer feels it has been created from a very intimately private place and yet has the power to connect to something within them on a deeply personal level. For me, especially as a woman, Lucrezia beautifully blurs this line.

Her most recent works are boxes of curiosity, inviting engagement at every angle and highlighting the need and importance of physicality in emerging contemporary art. Aligning with THE TAGLI’s wish to provide space and opportunity to emerging artists and access beyond the conventional art market, just as Fontana’s slices of the canvas present an expression of hope and ‘expansion of spirit’; the vastness of the present and the future.”

The physicality facet in Abatzoglu’s work stems in part from her background in costume design, which has fueled her interest in textiles, informing her experimentation with surfaces. She often employs sustainable materials, too, like carmine pigments derived from cochineal insects and untreated muslin cotton. This materiality, she says, prompts questioning “through an eco-feminist lens. The process itself is just as important as the finished result, being self-reflective and allowing the materials to guide both the work and me, creating a deep connection between the pieces and the natural world.”

Abatzoglu’s works, whether painted or sculpted, tend to feature enigmatic female forms and bodies, atmospheric and ambivalent. Recently she has been exploring themes of power, religion, madness and fate – concepts as perennial as art itself. “I’ve been able to connect ancient traditions with contemporary themes, encouraging viewers to reflect on presence, absence and the beauty of the natural world, but also the intricacies of identity and belonging”, she explains. A contemporary classicist for the age of the anthropocene.