Letizia Lucchetti on Painting the Everyday and the Millimetre Shift

Letizia Lucchetti (Ancona, 1999) is a young Italian painter whose work transforms ordinary objects into monumental forms, expanding the everyday. Her paintings feature rounded, statuette-like figures against barely sketched backgrounds, resembling oversized trinkets from an enchanted antique shop. Despite the large formats, the subjects are personal items from her immediate surroundings, such as objects on her bedroom shelf. Lucchetti cites influences including Filippo de Pisis, Rose Wylie, Luc Tuymans, and David Hockney, but emphasizes that daily life and conversations with friends are the primary drivers of her practice. She currently lives in a small town in the Marche region and describes her artistic direction as moving less than a millimetre, oscillating between treating canvas like paper and vice versa. Lucchetti was recently awarded a residency in the Nuovo Forno del Pane programme at MAMbo in Bologna. She reflects on the condition of young artists in Italy, noting increased attention but also the fear of being a passing trend. She has no upcoming exhibitions and is working on two series: one begun during the residency, and another about objects she can never possess. The interview was conducted by Saverio Verini.