Artist: Lantomo
Title: Neon Crown
Size: 130h x 97w x 3d cm (51.2h x 38.2w x 1.2d in)
Media: Graphite, charcoal, coloured pencils and luminous paint on paper mounted on wood panel
Frame: Mounted on board, ready to hang as is.
Unique
'‘Neon Crown’ is a paradigm of melancholy under pop icons. On the surface she is a queen with a crown that other people have put on her. She is brightness and surprise, she is the light at the party. But underneath this facade she is the same as before, she has the same innocence as before, the same disappointed childhood...
Technically, I used a long process of graphite and charcoal on paper glued on wood panel. Many layers of graphite fixed with many other layers of water and glue. Realistic details have been added with colour pencils, using varnish to enhance the stickers appearance. The backgrounds are a gradient obtained by working on layers with charcoal and graphite powder. The glow details were made with luminous spray paint.' Lantomo, 2021
'Neon Crown' is a new original artwork by Lantomo, the pseudonym of Antonella Montes, an Italian artist based in Barcelona. The passion for drawing, inherited from her mother, has been a constant in her life. She studied architecture in Italy (Rome and Genoa); later moving to Spain to pursue studies in scenography and exhibition design.
Since 2010, Lantomo has been devoted to her painting practice and what was a personal passion has become her primary activity. As part of this journey, she lived for nearly two years in Beijing, China, something that left an indelible trace in her work. Her drawings seem to become ever more accurate and precise, emphasising the hyperreal nature of her portraits. She continues to use primarily black but with touches of red, blue as well as fluorescent tones.
"My artistic practice is focused on creating realistic portraits that allow me to represent and convey a wide range of emotions and states of mind. The portraits I create often embody a feeling of isolation and introspection, surrounded by silence. Memory, fears and feelings of loneliness in our society are themes that captivates me.
The primary medium I use is graphite that allows me to create grayscale images complemented with touches of color against a uniform background that is often black but sometimes strong bold colours like red or blue. As part of my process I clean the image until I arrive at a minimalist composition (probably something I carry with me from my training as an architect), as nothing should distract from the feeling I want to express.
That’s why I use silhouettes and symbols taken from street art in my visual language as this helps me represent personal experiences and universal concepts.
I draw inspiration from the iconography and classic drawings from traditional Asian art (especially Chinese and Japanese) characterised by an avoidance of any excess of decoration. My subjects are mainly female, proud and visibly melancholic."
Please note the visual simulations of the artwork in a domestic setting included in the photo gallery are provided purely as a visual reference and may not be to scale. If you have a specific space in mind for the artwork, email us with the details and we can create a mock up of your space with this specific artwork to scale for you.