In her first London solo exhibition–Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me–Brazilian artist Lize Bartelli brings a vivid and unapologetic vision of femininity to Roman Road’s Mayfair pop-up. Curated by Marisa Bellani to coincide with London Gallery Weekend 2025, the show confronts entrenched ideas about beauty, identity, and power, centering on strong, sensual women who defy objectification.
Drawing its title from The Smiths’ melancholic anthem of longing and disillusionment, the exhibition reclaims emotional vulnerability and reinterprets it through confident, self-possessed figures. Bartelli’s women—Brigitte, Gloria, Simone, Leila—are not passive muses but autonomous protagonists. They smoke, speak, play cards. They flirt with the camera but never for its approval. Each figure resists the traditional male gaze, turning instead toward a mirror of their own making.
Bartelli’s visual language—bold reds, deep blacks, and pops of unexpected color—pulses with life. Her smooth skin tones and stylized forms evoke the hyper-idealized aesthetic of fashion illustration, yet beneath their surface lies an intentional friction. Through subtle gestures and charged compositions, these women reclaim their sensuality on their own terms.
Rather than depicting literal portraits, Bartelli invokes historical figures—Brigitte Bardot, Simone de Beauvoir, Leila Diniz—whose legacies redefined public notions of femininity, sexuality, and resistance. While Bardot’s cropped, cigarette-holding likeness is the only direct reference, the others serve as symbolic echoes of feminine rebellion and intellectual force. The cultural residue of the 1960s and 70s is ever-present: rotary phones, vintage interiors, and cinematic stillness situate the works in an era of radical change, yet their resonance is unmistakably contemporary.
At the heart of Bartelli’s practice is a conscious subversion of how women are typically framed in art. Her subjects do not invite voyeurism; they challenge it. Through what curator Marisa Bellani terms Solar Feminism—a radiant, resilient vision of womanhood—Bartelli reframes femininity not as struggle but as strength, warmth, and refusal to conform.
This exhibition is more than a celebration of feminine power; it is a quiet revolution. In a world still saturated with reductive portrayals of women, Bartelli offers something urgent and radical: images of women who simply are—unbothered, unburdened, and undeniably in control.
Lize Bartelli (b. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; lives and works in London) is a painter whose practice is rooted in colour theory and an exploration of feminine identity, which evolved from her academic studies in Philosophy at PUC in Rio de Janeiro (2008–2012) and Performance Art at CAL , Rio de Janeiro. She furthered her artistic background in Europe, completing a Master’s in Design at Marangoni in Milan (2012–2013) and studying Art History at Sotheby’s in London (2016–2017).
Lize Bartelli: Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
Roman Road Mayfair Pop-Up, 12 Saint George St, London W1S 2FB
5th–11th June, 2025.
