Overwhelmed II 2020

Curator: Valeria Duca’s oil painting, “Overwhelmed II,” completed in 2020, presents a rather arresting image. What strikes you initially? Editor: The subject's face, pressed with a flower, it evokes both suppression and a strange kind of offering. There's a strong feeling of… suffocation, not just physically, but emotionally. All those blooms look heavy. Curator: Indeed. Considering the title, "Overwhelmed II," one can’t help but consider the role of women in contemporary society and art, always subjected to more... Editor: The floral arrangement, literally crowding the frame—and the woman, suggests fragility and beauty on one hand, sacrifice and, like you said, constraint on the other. Flowers have symbolized all those things throughout history. And their placement near her mouth brings an allusion to ideas and feelings suppressed. Curator: The composition definitely reinforces this. She is seemingly trapped in her boudoir. But how interesting that the work comes out during the recent pandemic, because I could make an easy link with its confinement and psychological challenge on modern subjects... Editor: Absolutely. And from an iconographic perspective, we might even interpret the flowers as symbols of both beauty and decay, the ephemeral nature of life perhaps heightened by that very isolation. It’s interesting how Duca seems to pit idealized femininity against something more raw. Curator: I agree. The figure, positioned almost as a fallen Ophelia amidst all those dying lilies and roses… but then, the everyday nature of her jeans disrupts the classical allusion, bringing it back to a very contemporary context, about dealing with this feeling on current culture. The very real kind of “overwhelmed”. Editor: It’s a potent image that lingers in the mind, playing with those visual tensions. It makes one contemplate our roles. Curator: Yes, a very current portrait and, indeed, I feel Duca invites a crucial dialog regarding those social anxieties of contemporaneity in "Overwhelmed II". Editor: Definitely. There's a strong message—fragile, visceral, and undeniably striking.