'Digital Dali' Louisa Gagliardi to Debut in South Korea
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Gagliardi is one of very few artists who has found representation at a leading gallery for her digital paintings, which she augments with ink and nail polish.

Louisa Gagliardi is in some ways an unlikely art world success. Born in Switzerland in 1989, she studied not art but graphic design and primarily paints not in oils but using digital tools. She prints her compositions on PVC and coats them with a clear gel that adds texture.

While her methods are unconventional, her works often capture feelings of awkwardness and alienation that resonate with audiences. She was described as a 'digital Dali' in Forbes '30 Under 30' for Europe in 2017, and this year she will present solo exhibitions with both Galerie Eva Presenhuber and Belgian cultural centre CC Strombeek.

We spoke to her ahead of her debut Korean solo show, Hard Feelings, which takes place from 22 March to 13 April at Taxa, Seoul.

You'll be visiting South Korea for the first time. What are you looking forward to seeing when you get there?

I've been wanting to go for a long time and I'm really excited for all of it. I will stay mainly in Seoul and can't wait to discover its art scene, museums, just walk around the city and if I'm being totally honest, I really look forward to the food! And of course I hope the show will be received well.

To me, digital drawing, painting, and illustration is not as frowned upon as it once was, especially with the likes of David Hockney taking it so seriously. Do you feel like there's still a stigma there, and if so does it impact the prices you can charge for your work?

I believe that if used correctly, by that I mean not mistaking it for a short-cut into making a (good) work, it is as serious as any other medium. There might still be a stigma, but as people understand those tools better and better, the rest will fall into place.

Do you feel like the addition of the gel medium to create the illusion of brush strokes is an acknowledgement that people still want to see traditional painting?

I have no doubt that people still and always will want to see 'traditional painting'—I know I do. To me, the last addition is my ode to it. As I start with the hand by sketching, I finish it with the hand applying the different varnishes. I also like how, as the viewer walks around a painting, the glitter in an iris suddenly winks at them, or how, when the light hits it right, the varnish comes to life.

The paintings that first got you attention from galleries were close up portraits depicting people hiding behind beer cans and cigarettes dealing with their social anxiety. Is that something you struggle with?

Technology and social media have many upsides, but it is a double-edged sword. Being too much online is living in a filter bubble with a false sense of choice and access. Not being able to edit ourselves, interacting face to face, showing our unfiltered-self can be anxiety-inducing. The pandemic definitely didn't help with that feeling. I sure have struggled with it, but as I'm growing older, I strive to be more and more present in this brave new world.

Your works have absurd elements and allusions to surrealism (clocks, for example) but I don't think they're Surrealist in the sense of trying to tap into literal dreams and nightmares. What feelings are you trying to communicate through details like the glasses and bottles on the power pylons?

In most of my paintings, the figures appear stoic and passive to their surroundings and to one another. In the group of paintings for Hard Feelings, the still-lifes give more—they are more alive than the characters. In Lovebirds (2024) (pictured top), the birds are the ones having a good time, cuddling each other, having a party! —[O]