Lucia Parrella is an Illawarra based artist who makes prints, artists’ books and enjoys sending mail art. 

Drawing on personal and mythic narratives, Lucia’s print works blend real and imagined elements to reflect on memory, place and the fragility of human cultures. Growing up bi-lingual in Australia, her Italian cultural background is a strong source of inspiration. Nostalgia, the yearning for a place, time or language, is a recurring theme. 

Lucia relishes the interactive and poetic potential of artist’s books, the play between the visible and invisible. Sometimes her work includes text but the meaning is never literal: words are obscured, untranslated or untranslatable, hinting at what is lost, endangered or unknown. 

After graduating with a Bachelor of Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong, Lucia undertook further training in Italy where she was introduced to artists’ books and letterpress printing. Over the years, she has collaborated with a number of print studios in Italy to facilitate print workshops, print exchanges and exhibitions with Italian and Australian artists. 

In Australia, Lucia has also worked as a community arts practitioner co-facilitating printmaking, storytelling and other creative projects with culturally diverse groups. These collaborative experiences continue to nourish her practice.

Lucia has exhibited regularly since 1996 and her prints and artists’ books are held in public and private collections in Australia and abroad including the Research Library, Art Gallery of NSW, the Queensland State Library and Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, Artists’ Book Collection, Venice (Italy).