Luana Montebello

Luana Montebello (b.1992) is a self-taught artist based in Malta. The core of her practice pushes towards the pinnacle of hyperrealism, striving to seek a balance between the solemnity of precision and the capriciousness of play. Each medium, with its unique characteristics, is used to convey a different form of expression. Using her preferred materials of graphite and charcoal, her work explores the beauty and subtleties of forms, from the vast landscapes of the human figure, to the silent bones beneath, all while amplifying the emotions at the core of the human experience. Luana also works with pen and ink using the stippling technique, studying the relationship between objects and the natural world, one single dot at a time. 

A podiatrist by profession, human anatomy forms the basis of Luana’s work, both in the figure itself and also how it translates through sculpture. Albeit the stark contrast between medicine and art, she believes they are bound together in a paradoxoical yet linked reality, and both are needed to nourish and sustain life.