Salvatore of Lucan | Fancy Situations, Dead Present Etc.

Salvatore Fullam (born 1994), known professionally as Salvatore of Lucan, is an Irish artist from Lucan, Dublin. He primarily paints large-scale works, most of which focus on his own life and explore themes of home, identity and relationships. The Irish Museum of Modern Art described his work as featuring "expansive domestic scenes where realism meets the uncanny, and the familiar broaches the magical."

Extract from Megan Nolan.

'Looking through the paintings in Fancy Situations, I was struck by how friendly Salvatore’s work feels. Visual art often feels cold and distant to me, but here I feel invited in—sometimes cosily, like domestic scenes that make me miss my family and Ireland, and sometimes illicitly, like glimpsing the intimate, which makes me giddy and rude.

Part of this sense of home comes from something childlike in the work—not naive, but a plain, unguarded expression of desire. Need doesn’t end with childhood, but we learn to mask it; in these paintings, it’s as open and innocent as a baby’s, whether for food, comfort, or play. Mostly, I resonate with the urge to merge with others and one’s surroundings, spilling into each other. Seeing a friend of Sal’s depicted this way fills me with a kind of proxy-pride, imagining such love.

I remembered something else. Walking in the park, I laughed aloud at a memory of drawing the faces of people who occupied my thoughts—a kind of devotional act, whether through sketches, mix tapes, or transcribed poems. I realized I’d mostly outgrown the impulse; intimacy can now be asked for directly, rather than summoned through shrines. The last time I did it was in winter 2019, with a brief crush on Salvatore while living by the sea in England. I drew his face to place my feelings somewhere outside myself—a long time ago, before everything changed. I feel lucky to remember that drawing and to speak from that time in this show.'