Italian Artist Lulù Nuti: "When I Study the Material, It Gives Me a Vision."
•March 3, 2026
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Why It Matters
Nuti’s emphasis on material dialogue and anti‑industrial methods challenges conventional production, offering a model for sustainable art practices that resonate with environmentally conscious collectors and institutions.
Key Takeaways
- •Material dialogue drives Lulù Nuti’s sculptural concepts through process.
- •Iron’s lack of leftovers reflects her anti‑industrial ethos.
- •Studio sketches act as energetic placeholders, not precise plans.
- •Audience interaction reveals sculpture’s spatial power versus two‑dimensional art.
- •Her work critiques consumption, urging slower, material‑respectful creation.
Summary
The video features Italian sculptor Lulù Nuti, who explains that her practice begins with a dialogue with material—particularly iron—and that studying the material gives her a vision of form.
She describes how she avoids precise drawings, using free sketches as energetic placeholders, and how iron’s “no leftovers” quality aligns with her resistance to industrial, wasteful production. Nuti emphasizes the emotional charge of each gesture and the responsibility she feels toward the material.
A memorable incident at art school—when a visitor violently shook her first sculpture—illustrated the physical presence of sculpture versus two‑dimensional work. Her professor’s comment about occupying space reinforced her belief in sculpture’s power.
Nuti’s philosophy positions sculpture as a critique of fast‑consumer culture, urging slower, material‑respectful creation. For collectors and galleries, her approach signals a growing market for sustainable, process‑driven art that foregrounds material integrity.
Original Description
“The material already carries a history.”
We met the Rome-based artist in her studio in Centocelle, where iron, tools, and unfinished works share the same space. For her, sculpture begins with listening to the material. “When I study the material, it gives me a vision, a form. Then I start to work with it. I could recognize myself in iron.”
Her works are neither abstract nor figurative. They don’t represent something. They exist as presences in the space. Forms that hold emotions such as tension, intimacy, or restraint.
Trained as a painter at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, she slowly moved toward sculpture. A turning point came when a visitor physically interacted with one of her early pieces. “That’s when I understood the difference, between a two-dimensional piece, and a sculpture in the space.”
Working with iron also reflects an ethical choice. It can be reused and reshaped. Nothing is wasted. In a world already overloaded with objects, Lulù Nuti sees making at a human pace as a form of resistance. “To work in a human measure is an act of resistance, against speed, against overproduction.”
Her practice becomes a way to think about how we live with matter, time, and change, and how sculpture can shift our perception of even the simplest materials. “It’s not a trick. The possibilities are already inside the material. You just reveal them.”
Lulù Nuti (b. 1988) is a French/ Italian artist living and working in Rome. She graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris in 2012. Since then, her work has been shown widely in public institutions and galleries internationally, including Fondazione Pescheria, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Palazzo Collicola and GALERIE CHLOE SALGADO, Paris. Solo exhibitions include Tube (2024, Galerie Chloé Salgado, Paris), In My End Is My Beginning (2024, Palazzo Collicola, Italy), Terrain Amère (2021, Paris), and Sistema (2015, Rome).
Lulù Nuti was interviewed by Astrid Agnes Hald in her studio in Rome in January 2026.
Camera: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Forge images by Alejandro Cifuentes in Jadran Stenico studio, Italy
Edited and produced by Astrid Agnes Hald
Music via Upright:
Meandres Monochromes Part 1 by Alice Guerlot-Kourouklis
Darkest by Christopher Lewis
Moody Space Drone by Philip Clemo
The Wind (Ambience Version) by Søren Stensby
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2026
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