Neuendorf Residency Invites Painter Louise Giovanelli to Set Up Studio at Its Minimalist House in Mallorca

Louise Giovanelli. Image courtesy of the artist and Grimm Gallery.

Artnet and Neuendorf House have announced that the British painter Louise Giovanelli is the latest artist to take up the coveted residency at Neuendorf House in Mallorca, Spain. The strikingly minimalist villa, which boasts views of both sea and mountains, was designed in the late 1980s by architects John Pawson and Claudio Silverstrin for the German art dealer and Artnet founder Hans Neuendorf and his wife Caroline.

Every year, contemporary visual artists are invited to live at the house for a period of four to six weeks, with travel, art materials, and access to a newly renovated 1,475-square-feet studio building all included. Set within a sprawling 30-acre secluded almond grove, the 6,460-square-foot villa offers the artist plenty of space to work without distraction or explore the island and marvel at its breathtaking coastal views.

“I know now why Matisse, Picasso, etc. came to the Mediterranean to take advantage of this silvery light,” said Giovanelli, who has already started the residency. “What I have been trying to foreground in my paintings these last few years is the essence of light, reflection, absorption, and refraction. Neuendorf House, an artwork in itself, is situated in a peaceful corner of this wondrous island.”

Louise Giovanelli, Vanitas (2022). Courtesy of the artist and White Cube.

Giovanelli, (b. 1993) is usually based in Manchester, and gained recognition for her ambiguous, close-cropped compositions, most commonly of fabrics like drapes or stage curtains, shiny heads of hair, or theatrically expressive faces often borrowed from television and film. These fragmentary images can have the feeling of faded photographs, but are amplified by the artist’s knack for reproducing textures in exquisite detail. These luminous surfaces could almost tempt the viewer to reach out and stroke the canvas.

“Louise Giovanelli is one of the most talented and exciting painters of her generation,” commented Albert Neuendorf, the program’s founder and chief strategy officer at Artnet. “We are thrilled to welcome her to the residency.”

Giovanelli is represented by White Cube, where she had her debut show at the Bermondsey location in 2022, and GRIMM, where she has had shows in New York and Amsterdam. The Neuendorf program’s previous artists-in-residence were Nathanaelle Herbelin and Christine Safa.

Check out images of Neuendorf House below.