ATHENS – A night at the museum is every night for art dealer and gallerist Glenda Lorenzani and her growing family, as her art gallery is their home – or to put it another way, their home is an art gallery.

Lorenzani from Rome, Italy moved to Athens in November 2014 with her husband and opened the Domus Art Gallery with a goal of making contemporary art accessible to the Greek audience. And the beautiful artwork gracing her walls prove it.

She explains how part of her goal is to have artwork going into people’s homes as a piece of furniture not just to decorate their home. She says, “when you buy art, you are buying the artist’s time and creativity… in other words, his or her soul.”

This deep connection to art has made Lorenzani want to offer artwork at reasonable prices in order to reach everyone around her and, at the same time, it gives more power to the artists by enabling their pieces to be seen on a greater scale.

It also gives power to the trend of home galleries. Daniel Levine, trends expert, keynote speaker, and director of The Avant-Guide Institute in New York, gives us further insight. “Home art gallery is a space for temporary art exhibitions inside a private home. The art on display can be for sale, or not. However, in all cases the art is there not just to be admired, but also promoted by those living in the space.”

Lorenzani organizes art events on a bi-monthly basis where guests can become acquainted with the works of contemporary artists “while simultaneously spending a lovely evening in a welcoming ambience – an elegant twist to the normal antiseptic jaunts to the museums and galleries.”

And the warmth of her home extends to her personality… not only as she invites people into her home gallery in this informal and unconventional way to interact with art, but as she gushes about living in Greece and raising a family here. And how it gave her the idea to have a home art gallery.

“I’ve fallen in love with this country from the beginning. My husband was working here before moving so I had the chance to know it before, to meet people and to think about my future here as easier, more free, and with a high quality of life. I was very warmly welcomed and fascinated by the city. I’m a very friendly person who loves to spend time out or share her place with friends so I had an idea: to involve my Roman artist friend (Guisy Lauriola) along with her paintings and link our welcome to Greece together with art.”

The first exhibit was in December of 2015 and the endeavor continues to this day most recently with the current exhibit, Women Incolors which opened on May 9 to coincide with her late mother’s birthday and to celebrate the strength and beauty of women through the work of Italian artist Guisy Lauriola and natassa (always lowercase) Kaloti, a Greek-Irish artist living in Greece.

Giusy Lauriola in her work interprets the feminine universe showing the sweetness, the power, the fragility, the bright colors, the sensuality, and the strength it contains.

As Lauriola notes, “this new series of artwork is the result of our research into the use of resin and colors. I wanted to create transparent but hidden figures, fragile but strong, by starting from the figurative style and arriving at abstract expressionism. It’s my way of expressing the feminine state. This is the reason I call them Liquid Women. Liquid, because resin represents water and water appears everywhere.”

natassa Kaloti has worked on the series Illusion of Free Will extensively exploring movement in prints, mixed media (gold leaf and acrylics), and performance. There is a strong philosophical background supporting this work, which is then translated onto the canvas through the use of dancers leaving their imprint via a set composition of a series of movements, which in turn becomes the foundation upon which she works.

Lorenzani adds, “Giusy, natassa, and I have worked hard to show all the different ways of women can transmit a real positive [force] though around female figures.”

And those womanly influences are seen vividly in the friendships and relationships Lorenzani has made with artists and attendees alike while also crediting her new home Greece.

“Greece gave me another perspective on life. To be humble and modest and appreciate the small things. I never felt judged. I love the way they lived during the crisis and what the country was offering during the crisis. You can enjoy the country with or without money. The beauty is everywhere for free.”

Levine notes that, “Your choice of art is an expression of the way you see yourself” and it’s safe to say that Lorenzani is appreciating and promoting the beauty surrounding her, whether outside in Greece or inside on the walls of her home gallery.

Visit: www.domusartgalleryathens.com.