There’s an undeniable eerieness about Marialaura Fedi’s faceless women, which is in clear contrast with her illustrations’ light wash of pastel colors. Faced forward, her female portraits seem all but timid – a powerful, feminist stance – and also, strangely, a celebration of the female body.
Based in Rome, Italy, Fedi’s art is very much an extension of herself. “My art and art, in general, is like the base on what my entire existence is funded, something like eating or drinking,” she reflected in an interview with Ballpitmag. “So I should say that I see through art and seeing through art is the only way I know to look at the world.”
Having studied at the Fine Art Academy, her work relies on gouache colors almost entirely, as Fedi admits she likes the feeling of brush strokes on paper. But she also works digitally, using an iPad Pro pencil.
“My story is pretty simple,” she says. “I’m the first daughter of 3 and I started painting because there were too many people in my home.” But of course, scrolling through her rich portfolio, her story seems much bigger than that. Here are some highlights from her Instagram page:
