Giulia Andreani paintings in her solo show ‘Pigs and Old Lace’ on @galeriemaxhetzler until 31 Oct. The title of Andreani’s show references the French equivalent of the #metoo movement, ‘Balance ton Porc’ or ‘Denounce your Pig’.

Although she references archival images, Andreani never simply highlights patriarchal systems or regurgitates history; she reinterprets, recontextualises, and rehabilitates. As historian and artist – and even psychotherapist in the way she manages to eradicate amnesia within the female artist canon – Andreani invites us to feast on her allegorical paintings layered with symbolism and subtext.

She uses Payne’s grey – ‘the colour of projected shadows at dusk, a time of change and therefore of reversal’ – brilliantly, as only an artist who has complete understanding of value, emphasis, contrast, and space can.

She says: ‘The history of painting is gender-led – it’s masculine – of that I’m certain. But when I paint, I am neither male nor female. The question of feminism is therefore pressing, but as part of a wider reflection on political art and morality. Art is a game and morality is the artist’s worst enemy. Art remains an immensely serious game for me, and, in so far as it harbours an element of denunciation and revolt, it is a guerilla warfare of signs. While I am a feminist, I do not wish my art to be seen as an emblem of any particular ideology…’