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Vittoria Colonna

Fragments of collaged imagery, symbols, and visual references that strike a deep emotional chord form the fertile ground from which Vittoria Colonna's artistic practice emerges. These images constitute an inner reservoir of memory and intuition, transforming the artist into what she describes as an "awakener" - one who seeks to stir consciousness and reveal unseen dimensions of experience.

Among the archetypes central to her work is the figure of the Sheela na Gig, the ancient Celtic representation of the sacred feminine. Simultaneously generative and devouring, nurturing and transgressive, the Sheela embodies a primordial force poised between life and death, sensuality and void, presence and transcendence. This symbol also reflects Colonna's Irish heritage, drawing upon ancestral narratives rooted in the Celtic imagination.

Solar motifs, labyrinths, spirals, and cosmological symbols likewise populate her visual universe. Although fundamentally abstract, Colonna's work is infused with archetypal references that resonate at a deeply intuitive level, transforming abstraction into a dreamlike landscape where chaos is distilled into a poetic and symbolic language.

Meditation forms an essential part of her creative process. Through states of profound stillness and heightened awareness, she seeks access to realms beyond ordinary perception—spaces where dreams, intuition, memory, and unconscious knowledge can surface. It is within this threshold between visible and invisible realities that Colonna locates her role as an artist: to awaken dormant aspects of the self and invite viewers into a deeper dialogue with their own inner worlds.

Her paintings frequently extend beyond the traditional picture plane, incorporating handcrafted textiles and tactile materials that reflect her longstanding engagement with Fiber Art. Soft, draped, tufted, and interactive surfaces invite physical and emotional participation, transforming the artwork into an immersive experience that exists somewhere between object, ritual, and performance.

Another defining characteristic of Colonna's practice is the fragmentation and reconstruction of form through luminous fields of colour. Vibrant fluorescent palettes generate visual rhythms that simultaneously dissolve and reveal recognisable structures. A recurring motif is that of Gemini, the artist's zodiac sign. In the work Gemini, mirrored figures emerge from a constellation of radiant colours, suggesting themes of duality, reflection, and multiplicity.

Born to Irish and Italian heritage, Vittoria Colonna draws inspiration from both cultural traditions and from a profound connection to the natural world. This dialogue between ancestry, spirituality, and contemporary visual culture gives rise to works of ambitious scale and immersive presence, infused with what may be described as a contemporary form of cosmic shamanism.

Colonna's collaboration with FAF began in 2023 with Shamanka, a solo exhibition that brought together painting, textile works, and ritual objects. Among these were the Dream Sticks—transformed chestnut branches sourced through the natural pruning of trees and imbued with symbolic and energetic significance. These works reflected an animistic understanding of nature and a cosmological vision of artistic creation.

In 2025, again in collaboration with FAF, Colonna presented Transmission, a solo exhibition centred on the image of the television test pattern or monoscope. Reimagined through textile works and video installation, the symbol became a meditation on interruption, pause, reconnection, and the reclamation of time within contemporary life.

Critical text by Elena Santoni (2026)

TEXTILE AS A LIVING LINE

I am an Irish–Italian artist based in Florence, working primarily with textile, fibre, found materials and installation. Although my practice has always been multidisciplinary, in 2020 my work moved decisively towards textile.

This transition was deeply personal. As my mother’s Alzheimer’s progressed, I noticed that she could often connect more instinctively through touch. Textile offered a language beyond words—something she could hold, feel and recognise through the body. Texture became a form of communication between us: a carrier of memory, intimacy and care.

My relationship with textile reaches further back through the women in my family. My grandmother was a seamstress, and there was an inherited instinct to cover, mend, adorn and transform—to use cloth not only practically, but as a way of responding to life’s imperfections. By bringing textile into my practice, I began to uncover a language of the sacred feminine within my own family history.

My work explores the threads that connect us: to the maternal body, to ancestry, to place and to one another. Umbilical forms, braided cords, trailing yarn and repeated loops appear as symbols of origin, transmission and belonging. Fibre extends beyond the edge of the artwork, refusing to remain contained. It hangs, tangles, gathers and responds to movement, giving each piece a physical presence that feels both vulnerable and alive.

I draw upon inherited craft traditions, mythology, ritual and contemporary visual culture. Hand-tufting exists alongside painted cloth, sequins, pleather, muslin, feathers, stones and repurposed objects. I am particularly drawn to reclaimed materials that carry evidence of a previous life. Through wrapping, knotting, layering, stitching and accumulation, I transform them into tactile paintings, sculptural forms and immersive environments.

My process moves between intention and surrender. Loose threads, irregular surfaces and unexpected accidents are neither corrected nor concealed; they become part of the work’s evolving language.

I think of fibre as a living line—capable of carrying touch, memory, prayer and human connection across bodies, landscapes and generations.

DON’T RAIN ON MY PARADE - 8X8FT - Interchangeable Yarn, Pleather & Material - Vittoria Colonna 202