Sandro Droschl: Sing Sing

With Sing, Sing, Sandro Droschl, Director of HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark, invites you to a special guided tour through the first institutional solo exhibition of British painter Louise Giovanelli in the German-speaking world. The title of the tour is deliberately ambiguous: it alludes both to the religious Psalms that inspired the exhibition’s name – songs of ascent, spiritual striving, and inner transformation – and to pop cultural references, musical rhythms, and the visual language of the stage that run throughout Giovanelli’s work.

In her luminous, multilayered paintings, Louise Giovanelli creates image spaces of striking presence, where reality and illusion, sacred grandeur and everyday aesthetics meet in evocative ways. During the tour, Droschl will explore the central motifs of the exhibition – including shimmering curtains, intimate bodily fragments, and seemingly insignificant details – all charged with emotional and symbolic intensity. The series of curtains in particular emerges as a key element: referencing the stage and its boundaries, they speak to ideas of performance and concealment, revelation and transition – themes of both art historical and societal relevance. 

At the same time, Sing, Sing offers a discursive approach to Giovanelli’s method of working, which oscillates between art historical references (such as Renaissance painting), digital image culture (including material from Instagram), and contemporary popular culture. The tour reflects on how painting today can function not only as a medium of visual allure, but also as a means of reflection, memory, and transformation. 

In an atmosphere that is both focused and open, this guided tour invites visitors to engage with Louise Giovanelli’s subtle yet powerful paintings not only with their eyes, but with their ears – as if, true to the title, the works themselves might begin to sing.