Lucía Pizzani: Faunal Succession

25 Mar-30 May 2026

Overview

Venezuelan-born, London-based artist Lucía Pizzani presents her first institutional UK exhibition at Focal Point Gallery in Southend-on-Sea. Through a series of new installations and in collaboration with artists Cecilia Bonilla, Jaime Gili and local community groups and schools, Pizzani reimagines the Essex coast through a ‘deep time’ lens, linking geological transformation with contemporary questions of climate change, migration, and social transformation.

Faunal Succession is formed of three environments that merge installation, sculpture, painting, sound, and community participation. Each space references the geological strata of coastal Britain and its living organisms, combining scientific and poetic interpretations of the landscape. The exhibition title refers to the principle of faunal succession: the observation of chronological patterns in fossils that allows geologists to accurately date sedimentary rock layers. For Pizzani, this physical manifestation of ‘deep time’ becomes a framework for rethinking contemporary human and ecological crises, revealing borders and national identities as constructed and recent concepts.

Faunal Succession travels to KARST, Plymouth, from 11 June to 1 August 2026 and Mostyn, Llandudno in Spring 2027.

This exhibition is generously supported by the Lucía Pizzani Exhibition Circle:

Victoria and David Law (lead supporter), Maria Sukkar (lead supporter), ERA FOUNDATION, Launch Pad, Aude Fourcade, Leslie Ramos and Thomas Forwood, Flavia Nespatti, Shelley Tichborne, Erica Wax, Sophia Paulina Wilhelmsen and those who wish to remain anonymous.

About the Artist:

Lucía Pizzani (Caracas, 1975) works across photography, sculpture, ceramics, performance and installation to explore the interrelationships between historical narratives and processes of metamorphosis in the natural world. She holds a BA in Communication Studies from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (Caracas), a Certificate in Conservation Biology from CERC at Columbia University (New York), and an MFA from Chelsea College of Arts (London).

Recent solo exhibitions include Clay, Seeds and Other Ancestors at Frieze No 9 Cork St with APSARA & Frieze Studios, (London, 2025), Trópico Pasado at Galleria Doris Ghetta (Ortisei, 2025), Rites, Seeds and Refuge at Cecilia Brunson Projects (London, 2024), Morada Vegetal at Abra (Caracas, 2023), Merunto: In the House of Spirits at Bosse & Baum (London, 2022), Tiempo Membrana at Hacienda La Trinidad (Caracas, 2021), and Coraza at Fundación Marso (Mexico City, 2019). Recent projects and commissions include presentations for the Amazon Biennial (Belém), Frieze Sculpture (London), West Middlesex Hospital in Twickenham with Chelsea and Westminster Foundation Trust (London), Harewood Biennial (Leeds), Magasin3 Museum of Contemporary Art (Stockholm), Palazzo Bolani for Planet B: Climate Change and the New Sublime, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud (Venice), the Serpentine Galleries’ SEEDS programme (London), and Cabilla, curated by Sol Calero at TEA Museum (Tenerife). Pizzani’s work is held in public collections including Tate, Magasin3 (Stockholm), the Essex Collection of Art from Latin America (ESCALA), and the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC). She lives and works in London where she is a studio artist at Gasworks. luciapizzani.com