Former Notre Dame College student Gabriella Vittorio is one of 45 young artists selected to be featured in Top Arts 2024 at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV.
Selected from a pool of nearly 1200 applicants across Victoria who completed the new VCE study designs of Art Making and Exhibiting and Art Creative Practice in 2023, this exhibit celebrates the extraordinary talent of the next generation of artists, with Ms Vittorio having two pieces selected, Lab Rats and Lunchtime.
“When I was initially figuring out what I wanted to do, I knew I wanted to do something around family and culture,” Ms Vittorio said.
“I wanted to make it surrealist, but I wasn’t sure how I should.
“When I was figuring out the compositions, I started with lab rats and had thought of the idea of scientists testing on a person in the window.
“To make it more surrealist and a metaphor, the rats are testing on the person instead of the person testing on the rats.
“That is where I got the idea for the animals from.”
The digital painting Lab Rats was inspired by Ms Vittorio’s nonna, and her reaction to watching a comedian called Joe Avati.
“In one of his skits, he was talking about sauce day and how he gets up at 5am to do the sauce, and now there was this place in Melbourne promoting classes for people to come and join in sauce day,” Ms Vittorio said.
“My nonna was not really happy with that because she had to do the sauce and felt they were trying to steal our culture.
“Nonna felt like they were testing our culture, like they were studying the numbers and figuring out what they could do to profit off them.”
The grandma reflected in the piece is not Ms Vittorio’s nonna, just a random grandma with exaggerated features.
In the second piece, Lunchtime, the image reflects Ms Vittorio’s feelings at school as a young child.
“I wasn’t initially going to continue with animals in Lunchtime either, but when I got feedback from my class, we would do critiques, and they encouraged me to continue with the animal thing,” she said.
“So, I tried to continue it by making people, the little pigs and the little pigs, represent how I felt like a little pig eating my food at school.
“It is supposed to be a little version of me in Prep, a little bit of self-reflection from earlier.
“When you are in Prep, when you are little, emotions are so big, and you are like, my gosh, it is the end of the world if something happens.
“I wanted to try and portray that.”
Ms Vittorio is one of two Goulburn Valley artists selected, the other being former St Joseph’s College Echuca student Paul Halton.
Top Arts 2024 is at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV until July 14.