PORTABLE SCULPTURES INSPIRED BY MEDIEVAL ATMOSPHERES MEET THE FUTURE: LETIA – LETIZIA CARIELLO SPEAKS TO US OF BODY AND SPACE THROUGH A NEW ARTISTIC CREATION

The Neapolitan artist unveils a new chapter in her sculptural journey—creations that transcend any notion of fashion or accessory, born instead from a deep meditation on architecture, space, and the human body.

Both intimate and monumental in scale, these works reinterpret the meaning of portability and wearability within an aesthetic that evokes the medieval world, yet speaks powerfully of the future. Cariello’s “portable sculptures”—meant to be worn as much as contemplated—enter into a finely balanced dialogue with larger pieces drawn from her studio. Through this unprecedented approach—uncommon in both sculpture and jewelry, and even architecture—LETIA charts new creative frontiers with what she calls “artist’s goldsmithing”: works of jewelry as sculptural forms.

A graduate in Art History, LETIA worked in cinema in both Italy and the United States before dedicating herself fully to the artistic vocation. She later earned a degree in Painting from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, where she now teaches in the School of Sculpture. Her oeuvre spans sculpture, installation, drawing, video art, and photography, and is held in major public and private collections in Italy and abroad.

LETIA’s artistic inquiry seeks to intercept the material consistency of time and the possibilities of spatiality, recovering and rendering visible their traces—such as through her “calendars,” symbolic threads (often red) binding matter and space, revealing subtle connections. Her work increasingly focuses on Space—both internal and external—embracing concepts of energy and the invisible, in a profound reflection on the essence of Architecture. Through this process of identification and mending, LETIA reconstructs otherwise lost relations and reveals hidden linkages, recovering in historical tradition the seeds of a meditation that penetrates both space and the everyday, giving time a tangible form.

The exhibition’s conceptual core revolves around rhythm and module—distinguished only by whether or not they may be installed on the body. The body becomes a sacred edifice, a temple composed of columns, windows, and oculi, where each element defines both form and meaning. Not as prosthesis, but as a seal marking identity.

Polished marble stones with gold inlays and steel fans stitched with red thread, adorned with stones bearing the iconic “calendar,” are coherent extensions of Cariello’s ongoing research. Far from digression, this exhibition is a further articulation of her artistic trajectory.

A critical essay by Francesca Molteni provides a guiding lens through the exhibition project:

“There is a design, a hidden path within Letizia Cariello’s portable sculptures, like a labyrinth threading between nature and geometry. It invites us to decipher its rhythm and decode its signals. The architecture of Gothic cathedrals—pointed, striving heavenward—has become body, icon, hieratic figure, sculpture. Column, temple, crown. Byzantium, Theodora, Rennes. In search of a compositional and interior module that unites space and body, East and West, into a new synthesis.” — Francesca Molteni

Among the standout creations are the “Meridiana” ring in porcelain and 18kt yellow gold; the “Equator” choker; and the “Theodora” necklace, composed of porcelain tablets inscribed with inked calendars, set within star-shaped or plaque-like geometric structures. Even a tiara appears—what the artist calls “a crown for a King destined for a Woman.” These elements, inspired by medieval abstraction, are intricately connected to suggest a profound relationship between geometry, thought, and space.

Echoes of Byzantium and the Middle Ages, as well as the heroic age of Surrealism, resonate in rings, chokers, and necklaces that drape around the neck like scarves or stoles. Their impact is further amplified by a photographic sequence evoking historic and mythological female figures—Empress Theodora, the woman of Atlantis, the Valkyries, as well as the artist’s great-grandmother and Maria Callas.

This is a journey through art, history, and symbolism—where body and architecture become inscriptions of time and space, a structured and symbolic form of expression.