It is always a joyful event for a gallery-holder to discover the works of a great artist. Only her young age is responsible for Larissa Pietralas present lack of fame, a situation that should be redressed as rapidly and as actively as possible. When figuration of this quality is combined with intellectual depth, psychological truth and human compassion, one can only stand still, in awe. Even if influences of Schiele, Lucian Freud and Jenny Saville can here and there be traced in her work (but who would dare object to such illuminating influences ?), Larissa Pietralas voice is a truly original one. She gives us paintings where the aesthetic emotion is indissociable from a mirror-like message of great profundity. Larissa quite consciously challenges the last prejudice of our time : Ageism*.
Artistic secondary education (Antwerp)
Master's degree in painting of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp
Post-academic artistic studies in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Erasmus scholarship) and in Breda (Holland).
Her big nudes are, in the same way, self-studies that go much deeper than a superficial, epidermic rendering of a mere naked body. And the male nudes are stunning as well.
*Ageism reflects the negative attitude towards old age and against our senior citizens. It is the last discrimination, since racism, anti-semitism, male chauvinism, sexism, anti-gayism, etc. have all been dealt with previously (albeit not yet very successfully).