Biography
About Luca Sanna
I am Luca Sanna, an Italian visual artist based in Sardinia. My practice grows out of a deep relationship with the landscapes of the island: the sea, rock, roots and the changing light that moves across them.
In my paintings and drawings, landscape is never merely a setting. It becomes body, memory and vision. At times it remains empty and silent; elsewhere it receives figures and faces that merge with rocks, trees or water, creating a suspended space between reality and dream.
Roots and branches intertwine like veins of the earth. Trees become watchful presences; eyes and faces emerge from and dissolve into the landscape, observing while being observed.
Reflections of moonlight and sunlight on water — often at night, when the sea becomes a mirror — open visionary passages, while birds appear in the distance or merge into the background within intense, natural colour fields.
For me, colour does not simply describe: it evokes. It is both symbolic and emotional. Blues and greens suggest balance and quiet; ochres and earth tones recall roots and memory; sharper contrasts open more surreal and interior spaces.
Artistic practice
My work develops along three recurring axes: metamorphosis, where figures and landscapes transform into one another; symbiosis, the inseparable relationship between human presence and nature; and the oneiric, a dreamlike dimension that allows the image to move beyond the boundaries of the visible.
Sardinian landscapes are a point of departure, not a boundary. Each work seeks a broader visual language in which the visible meets the invisible and silence becomes an active presence.
Recurring themes
- Empty landscapes: spaces of silence and contemplation without human figures.
- Faces merging with landscape: presences emerging from rock, trees and roots.
- Roots and branches: organic lines associated with memory, continuity and belonging.
- Eyes within nature: concealed gazes among trees and rocks, suggesting a diffuse consciousness.
- Lunar and solar reflections: light on water, often nocturnal, opening toward interior visions.
- Birds and animal presences: vital, symbolic elements within the chromatic space.
- Symbolic colour: emotional and visionary palettes that translate memories and states of mind.
Media and materials
I work with acrylic, watercolour and pencil, choosing each medium according to the needs of the image. Acrylic allows layering and contrast; watercolour offers vibration and transparency; pencil gives precision to the line and to processes of transformation.
Background
I was born in Sassari in October 1973. After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sassari, I developed a practice that connects landscape, nature and surreal imagery. I live and work in Sardinia, where painting and drawing remain central while digital tools enter the process when they offer a meaningful extension of the image.
Over time I have also built an online archive of this practice, keeping the focus on the works, the writing around them and the dialogue with those who follow the research.
Follow the work
For exhibitions, collaborations or commissions: info@lucasanna.art.
You can explore the works or get in touch directly.