Love, hope and trust take flight through art in COVID-closed cities

Published by: Soda Communications | 8-Nov-2020
The work of award-winning artist Marco Luccio can usually be found hanging in galleries and collections from New York City to Hong Kong, but for now he's using it to instill hope on the streets of Melbourne and Sydney.
In collaboration with Melbourne-based company Rock Posters, Luccio has created an etching of two albatrosses lovingly touching beaks, accompanied by the words LOVE, HOPE, TRUST. More than 700 screen-printed posters of the artwork have been printed and pasted up across Melbourne and Sydney.

For many people across the world, the past six months have been fraught with isolation where lockdowns have become the new normal, Luccio said.

I wanted to engage with people who have found themselves wandering socially distanced cityscapes.

Luccio chose to use albatrosses as symbols of hope because they represent both isolation and social fidelity.

As solitary travelers, they cross immense distances alone, he said. However, an albatross's objective is always to reunite with its life-long partner and companions.

These large birds are also often at sea'. With much of our normal lives taken away from us, seemingly within moments, many of us have had that same feeling, he added.

The image also riffs on elements of Picasso's Dove of Peace and Shepard Fairey's Barack Obama Hope poster.

In keeping with the times, Luccio has allowed this project to slowly evolve and emerge, with people discovering the posters while out walking and engaging with them in real life' rather than in the (currently forbidden) context of an art gallery.

Those who see the posters are encouraged to capture their responses to the work using the hashtag #lovehopetrust. Many already have, sharing their images and thoughts to Instagram.

In many ways this single image feels as though it is more important than any other artwork I've done, Luccio said. A large number of people, many of whom would never see my work when it is shown in a traditional gallery, have already connected with it.

My hope is that with trust in the process and love as the driving force we can emerge from COVID-19 to a new reality enhanced by the reflection on meaning that enforced solitude tends to provoke. Marco Luccio is an award-winning artist whose work is represented in over 25 major public collections both nationally and internationally.

As a professional full-time artist he has held 36 major solo exhibitions; exhibited in over 150 group, curated, and award shows; and received several commissions.

Luccio has been collected in various private, public and corporate collections, including the New York Public Library, the Museum of the City of New York, the New York Historical Society and the National Gallery of Australia.

His work has been shortlisted for many major awards including the 2010 and 2009 Dobell and the 2013 Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing and fetches upwards of $15K.

A feature documentary on him by Zoo Patrol Productions will be launched in conjunction with the release of a new book. To see more about Marco and his work visit marcoluccio.com.au.

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