The fine art career of Argentinian-born (1971) painter, Luciana Abait, took an unexpected turn when she started experimenting with underwater photography while living in Miami. Up until that time, this highly-accomplished artist, educated at the National School of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires, the Peterhouse College at the University of Cambridge, England, and the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA, had been engrossed in a series of paintings that explored the architectural perspective of rooms, as seen from above. These very theatrical works explored spatial theory and featured ladders and other objects illuminated by surreal lighting. “When I entered the water and saw a pool through the lens of the underwater camera for the first time, I was overwhelmed,” recalls Luciana.

“My work explores themes of presence and absence through the architectural landscapes found underwater. Walls, ladders, numbers and lines lose their sense of usefulness, attaining a symbolic quality; swimmers are presented as anonymous, insect-like beings, moving through a vast liquid universe. Water is an element often connected with the concept of freedom. Swimming pools, by means of walls, create boundaries and confinement. My intention is to create engulfing environments that enable the viewer to explore not only themes of presence and absence but also the relationship between inside and out, agoraphobia and claustrophobia.”

Trained as a painter, Luciana’s Water Series utilizes her painting expertise, as well as modern photography and archival printing. No two pieces are exactly alike.

Luciana is in numerous corporate collections including Neiman Marcus, The Ritz Carlton Hotel, Chicago, the Four Seasons Hotel, Miami, The University of Miami, Miami-Dade Art in Public Places, Crandon Park Golf Course, and Freshfields in Hong Kong. She has won several awards including Honorable Mention in Florida Individual Artist Fellowship Program and inclusion in SPIN-National Theme Show at Broward Community College.

She has been featured in Art in America, ARTnews, Miami Herald, Chicago Sun-Times, Arte el Dia, and Veranda Magazine.