Louisa Gagliardi CH, b. 1989
Louisa Gagliardi’s paintings exist as reflections: internally, of artist and viewer, and of the rapid acceleration of technology in our visualised and socialised worlds. Their liminal status — at once digitally rendered images and physically assertive objects — speaks as much to contemporary concerns of self-mediated personas as it does to the compositions and narrative structures of art-historical painting.
Working with a process that moves fluidly between screen and surface, Gagliardi explores how identity, desire and perception are shaped within increasingly immaterial visual environments. Her figures and spaces appear suspended in a state between apparition and embodiment, echoing the ways digital images both reveal and obscure the world they depict. Through this interplay of illusion, texture and atmosphere, her works invite viewers to consider their own roles as observers, participants and projected selves within a culture of constant visual self-construction.
Gagliardi studied Graphic Design at ECAL, graduating in 2012, and has since exhibited widely, including solo presentations at Galerie Eva Presenhuber (Zürich, Vienna, Seoul), CC Strombeek (Brussels), Antenna Space (Shanghai) and MOSTYN (Wales). Her work has been shown in numerous international group exhibitions, among them Kunsthalle Zürich, the Swiss Institute (New York), the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Humlebæk), the National Gallery Prague and the Aargauer Kunsthaus.
She is the recipient of several awards, including the Distinction Jacqueline Oyex (2025), the Swiss Art Awards (2020) and the Prix culturel de la Ville de Sion (2019). Her practice has been the subject of two monographs and supported by residencies at Fondation Fiminco (Paris), Nordisk Kunstnarsenter Dale (Norway), and Fondation Suisse (Paris).
Gagliardi lives and works in Zurich.
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Trespasser, 2024Purchase
Education
2012 Bachelor, Graphic Design, Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne (ECAL)
2011 Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Erasmus
Awards & Honors
2025 DIstinction Jacqueline Oyex 2025
2022 (shortlisted) Swiss Emerging Artist Prize
2021 (shortlisted) Swiss Art Awards2021
2020 Swiss Art Awards
2020 (shortlisted) Werk- und Atelierstipendien Stadt Zürich
2019 Prix culturel de la Ville de Sion 2019
2018 Zürich Kanton Prize, Werkschau
2018 Shortlisted Swiss Art Awards
2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 List, category: Arts
2016 6 months residency at Fondation Suisse in Paris, Kanton Wallis
2015 Pullman × Wallpaper* Prize, Pullman Hotels
2014 Swiss Design Award
2012 Wallpaper*: See the future now! Student directory Canton Bank Prize (BCV) — Best Diploma Project
2009 Excellency award, basic year, ECAL
Solo & partner exhibitions
2026 Merger and Acquisition (with Adam Cruces), Ferme Asile, Sion, CH (Forthcoming)
2025 Haunts (with Adam Cruces), Orthunga, Vordinborg, DK
Hard Pressed, Galerie Eva Presenhuber x Faubourg 75, Paris, FR
Reunion, Art in the Salon, Baur au Lac, Zurich, CH
Then and Only Then (with Adam Cruces), Spazio Sassetti, Florence, IT
Many Moons, MASI (Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana), Lugano, CH
2024 Whereabouts, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Vienna, AU
Deep Breaths, CC Strombeek, Brussels, BE
Hard Feelings, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Seoul, KOR
2023 Moment’s Notice, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich, CH
2022 Reasonable Doubt, Dawid Radziszewski, Warsaw, PL
Around the Clock, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, CH
Fool’s Gold, with Adam Cruces, LEMME, Sion, CH
Louisa Gagliardi, Yves Scherer, with Yves Scherer, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, New York, US
2020 Wishful Thinking, Antenna Space, Shanghai, CN
Raincheck, Dawid Radziszewski, Warsaw, PL
2019 Fruits of Nature, with Adam Cruces, Berlinskje Model, Prague, CZ Side Effects of Satisfaction, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, BE
Force of Circumstance, McNamara Projects/ Antenna Space, Hong Kong, CN
Under the Weather, MOSTYN, Wales, UK
2018 Deleted Scene(s), with Adam Cruces, Joseph Tang, Paris, FR
Holdings, Openforum, Berlin, DE
On a day like this, Plymouth Rock, Zurich, CH
2017 Whispers in the shade, Pilar Corrias, London, UK
Cold Sweat, with Manon Wertenbroek, La Plage, Paris, FR
Notes for later, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, BE
2016 Walking Errands, with Adam Cruces, The Cabin, Los Angeles, US
La Belle Heure, Tomorrow Gallery, New York, US
Over and Under, with Adam Cruces, monCHERI, Brussels, BE
2015 Madrugada, with Fay Nicolson, Tomorrow Gallery, New York, US
2014 The New Guy, Galerie Ephemere, Hublot, Verbier, CH
Selected Goup exhibitions
2025 Niklaus Stoecklin | Liselotte Moser | Louisa Gagliardi, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, CH
Elevation 1049, Luma Foundation, Gstaad, CH
2024 Energies, Swiss Insitute, New York, US
Landschaft, Galerie Dawid Radziszewski, Warsaw, PL
Hot Shots, Espace d’Art Contemporain, La Chaud-de-Fonds, CH
There I lost myself, I lost myself, Blue Velvet, Zürich, CH
2023 Monotypes, Kunsthalle Zürich, CH
Print is a Battlefield Museo Villa dei Cedri, Bellinzona, CH2022 (Un)certain Ground: aktuelle Malerei in der Schweiz, Kunsthaus Pasqu’art, Biel, CH Swiss Emerging Artist Prize, Centre d’art contemporain de Genève, Geneva, CH
Group Show, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich, CH
Digital Intimacy, National Gallery Prague, CZ
2021 Lemaniana, Centre d’Art contemporain de Genève, Geneva, CH
Lugari, Rudimento, Quito, Ecuador
2019 La Métamorphose de l’Art imprimé, Verein für Orgininal Graphik, Zurich, CH
Observer of the Techniques, Wallriss, Fribourg, CH
The Kind Stranger, UN Art Center, Shanghai, CN
Dog Days, C-L-E-A-R-I-N-G, Brooklyn, NY, US
FOAF, Dawid Radziszewski, Warsaw, PL
2018 drawings, 650mAh, Hove, UK
On the Road, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, CH
Tronc Mental, Centre d’art contemporain de Neuchatel, Neuchatel, CH
No Fear of Fainting in a Gym, Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen, Sankt-Gallen, CH
2017 birds, cigarettes, guitars, eyes and trees, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, BE
Being There, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, DK Mount Analogue, Platform, Stockholm, SE
Werkschau 2017, Museum Haus Kontruktiv, Zurich, CH
Cul-de-Sac, Antenna Space, Shanghai, CN
Sans-Titre 3, Paris, FR
Tastes like headaches, with Adam Cruces, kim?, Riga, LV
2016 Hinter jedem Berg, Helmhaus, Zürich, CH
La Vitesse des Images, Instituto Svizzero, Roma, IT
Hypnic Jerk, Smart Objects, Los Angeles, US
Exercices in Style, Suprainfinit, Bucharest, RO
Surreal, König Galerie, Berlin, DE
Over and Under, monCHERI, Brussels, BE
2015 A perfect Lie, Galerie Jeanroch Dard, Brussels, BE Filter Bubble, Luma Foundation, Zurich, CH
Madrugada, Tomorrow Gallery, New York, US
