MARIA ELEONORA LESTINGI
I was born in Rome, where I live and work. After graduating in Literature, specialising in Contemporary Art History, from La Sapienza University in Rome, I began exhibiting my first works: collages on paper and canvas. At the same time, I contributed to the art magazine *Next* as an art critic, and subsequently wrote lifestyle articles for various newspapers, including *La Repubblica* and *Il Tempo*. In 1996, I began working at the Aga Press Agency, eventually becoming a professional journalist. For several years now, I have devoted myself entirely to painting.
From the very beginning, my artistic exploration has centred on the theme of the mỳthos, drawing on the iconography and iconology of classical Greek sculpture; using various methodologies, I create a unique work that draws on the past to find its relevance in the present: humanity and the divine share a common aesthetic space that transcends all geographical and political boundaries.
To define my artistic practice, I have coined the term ‘Icoclassicism’. I believe that the classical is not a thing of the past, but rather a framework of the imagination that speaks through archetypes we still recognise today. I evoke them to speak of the present through images that possess a tension—between balance and drama—which remains deeply relevant today.
‘Icoclassicism’ is a manifesto-like term: not an archaeological reference, but an iconic transposition. By isolating the gestures, twists and postures of classical and Hellenistic Greek sculpture, the artist renders them as absolute images.
Icoclassicism is therefore a process of translation: from marble to surface, from myth to form, from the ancient to the contemporary.
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