The Artist
Lorenzo Rutigliano is a figurative painter from Salento, Southern Italy, whose work explores the relationship between the human being and the natural world through oil and acrylic painting.
Drawing has been a constant part of his life since childhood. Growing up in Lequile, in the countryside of Salento, he developed an early fascination with the forms, colours and rhythms of nature. This connection became more conscious during his studies at the "Istituto d’Arte G. Pellegrino" in Lecce, where he specialized in painting and graduated in 2014.
After completing his studies, Lorenzo moved to London in 2018, where he lived for seven years. The experience of living in such a different environment profoundly influenced his perception of landscape. Between the dry, sun-baked landscapes and native vegetation of Salento and the lush parks, trees and changing atmosphere of England, nature became increasingly central to his artistic research.
His paintings are figurative, but do not seek to reproduce reality as it appears. Instead, Lorenzo uses natural forms as a starting point for translating personal perceptions, emotions and memories onto the canvas. Landscapes may therefore become dreamlike spaces, suspended between the visible world and an inner one. Forms can move, colours can intensify or transform, and familiar elements of nature can take on an almost symbolic or psychedelic quality.
At the heart of his practice is a fascination with the relationship between external nature and inner consciousness. A tree, a landscape, an animal or a small detail of the natural world can become a doorway into something less tangible: a memory, a sensation, a state of mind or a question about existence.
Through oil and acrylic, Lorenzo works intuitively, allowing the painting to develop through a dialogue between observation and imagination. His intention is not to impose a fixed interpretation on nature, but to explore how the world changes when it passes through individual perception.
In recent years, his work has increasingly focused on the idea of nature as a living presence rather than a passive subject. This perspective is connected to a broader reflection on the Universe, its mysteries and the relationship between human consciousness and the world we inhabit.
Lorenzo currently lives and works in Salento, where the landscape that surrounded his childhood continues to be an important source of inspiration for his artistic research.
