Giada La Penna is an Italian/Australian multimedia artist based in Canberra. Their work is moody, dynamic and stylized, taking inspiration from pop culture such as cartoons, anime mixed with the emotions of alternative/heavy music, album covers and fashion subcultures.

They draw a lot of my inspiration from the experience of growing up in two countries as a queer/neurodivergent individual. My work is informed by investigations into the personal nature of self-esteem, ideology, gender expression and sexuality. Most of the characters I design are androgynous, and representative of contemporary youth culture.

They have been practising art for as long as they can remember, visual art being the only subject they could really connect with during school. They were given lots of amazing opportunities to develop and showcase their art skills, such as taking part in street art workshops and being commissioned by their high school art teacher to paint the classroom door with an original painting.

They hope to connect with others like themselves through art, and confuse and educate the ones that might not necessarily understand it.

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