AN ITALIAN-BORN, BROOKLYN-BASED ARTIST MAKES PAINTINGS PACKED WITH SENSE OF LIFE-FORCE, SPIRITUAL ENERGY

by Edward M. Gómez

The artist Luisa Rabbia (Instagram: @luisarabbia) was born in 1970 near Turin, a commercial city and cultural hub in northern Italy that is the center of the country’s automotive industry. For many years, she has been based in Brooklyn, New York, while maintaining close ties to her homeland and returning regularly to Italy for extended working stays.

A few years ago, Rabbia, who shows her work at Peter Blum Gallery in downtown Manhattan, told me that, while working as a waitress during her early years in New York, during brief moments of down time between taking customers’ orders, she would make drawings with ballpoint pens on paper napkins, their inky compositions resembling constellations or gaseous mists.