Adulthood often dims one’s enthusiasm, relegating it to a few fleeting moments. Instead, age should amplify our wonder at the simple things.

Observing a work by Marco Luccio feels a bit like being immersed in endless state of astonishment as time slips away, unnoticed.

It’s somewhat reminiscent of when Luccio, in 1974 at the age of just five, flew with his large family of eleven to Australia.

He remembers the magic of the journey more than the drama of saying goodbye to Italy: “That flight for me is represented by the ‘flying sofa’ that left Italy and landed in Australia.”

Born in Benevento in 1969, Marco Luccio is constantly translating his enthusiasm for life onto the canvas.

This very enthusiasm has made him an internationally acclaimed artist, known for his exploration of universal themes through innovative printmaking techniques.

His works have been featured in over 50 solo exhibitions and 208 group shows worldwide, reflecting a deep engagement with his art.

Luccio’s work is present in 42 public and corporate collections, including the New York Public Library, the Museum of the City of New York, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria and the State Library of Victoria.

The time has come for Luccio to exhibit once again, this time at the Hellenic Museum.

Through his work, Luccio explores the human condition and topics some might consider heavy, doing so with great charm.

“The artist has this almost inquisitorial role, constantly questioning the surrounding environment and always wanting to know and inquire,” he says.

“I’m often told that I’m a fun person, but also intense. I need to joke around, otherwise I would get tired of always being too deep.”

At the Hellenic Museum, Luccio explores archaeology in a contemporary style with the exhibition Reverse Archaeology - Metamorphosis of Aphrodite.

This innovative exhibition dives into the essence of love and beauty through a series of original works inspired by the Hellenic Museum’s iconic statue of Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love and desire.

The collection showcases Luccio’s artistic process, which starts from a single charcoal sketch transformed onto a large copper plate using his renowned ‘drypoint’ technique. What follows is a metamorphosis of this initial artwork, carried out through a sequence of bold transformations.

Techniques like mixed media and scratching back imbue each piece with a unique character, evolving and reinventing the figure of Aphrodite in ways that explore the complexities of human emotions.

The exhibition unfolds as a narrative of intertwined creation and destruction, where each subsequent layer of the copper plate reveals traces of its predecessors— a process that echoes the techniques and sentiments of Renaissance painting.

Aphrodite emerges from the depths of Luccio’s artistic exploration, sometimes vibrant with red tones evoking passion, love, and desire; other times in melancholic shades of blue, evoking sadness and enchanting beauty.

This unmissable event at the Hellenic Museum in Melbourne is on from August 15 to October 27.

For more information about Luccio, click here.

To see Marco Luccio on The Last Days of Rome podcast, click here.

In the meantime, a documentary about Luccio and his thirty years of work is currently in production. Despite the many adventures etched into the copper plate of his own life, he still dreams of another ‘flying sofa’ taking him to new artistic frontiers.

“I’m thinking of moving to Europe—perhaps Italy or Spain.”