Malugho · Morena Tirintino · Italian painter

The story of the work

Breaking a cage, even a beautiful one

Power was born to inspire strength and rebirth. On one side of the canvas a mandala opens like an ornate, precious cage, built ring after ring in gold, ochre and copper. On the other side a panther breaks out of it and launches itself forward, into open space.

The cage is beautiful, and that is the point: even a beautiful cage is still a cage.

The work speaks of the moment in which we find the strength to leave something that holds us, however attractive it may be, and to start again with our own forces. The mandala, which in my work is usually a place of balance and calm, here becomes the limit to overcome; the panther is the energy that each of us carries and can choose to set free.

Like all my works, Power is built by hand in layers. The ground is made of sand, plaster and resin; the mandala is first traced on a grid and then drawn and painted freehand, motif by motif; the panther is painted in acrylic over the textured surface, so that the light changes on it as you move in front of the canvas.

TitlePower

Year2026

MediumAcrylic

MaterialsSand, plaster and resin on canvas

Dimensions100 × 50 cm

ExecutionEntirely freehand

How the works are made

The process, step by step

These short videos were filmed in the studio while working on mandala pieces. They show the same method used for Power: a geometric grid as the only guide, then everything else by hand — drawing, sand, relief, engraving and colour.

1The grid. Circles and rays are traced with compass and pencil: the only guide on the canvas.

2Freehand drawing. Every motif is drawn by hand in pencil inside the grid. No stencils, no transfers.

3Sand. Sand is laid onto the drawing with a brush, building the texture of the ground.

4Relief. Plaster is applied with a palette knife along the drawn lines to raise the forms.

5Engraving. Lines are cut into the plaster by hand.

6Colour. The details are painted freehand, one motif at a time.

7The result. Sand, relief, colour and glitter on a finished mandala.

Relief plaster surface worked by hand — Relief plaster, worked by hand.

Plaster folds in relief — Folds in relief, before colour.

Detail of plaster folds — Detail of the same surface.

Malugho at work on a portrait with mandala.

The artist

Malugho · Morena Tirintino

Morena Tirintino, who signs her work as Malugho, is an Italian artist from Calabria. Born in Taurianova in 1974, she obtained the diploma of Maestra d’Arte (art diploma) at the State Institute of Art "Michele Guerrisi" in Palmi in 1992. For fifteen years she ran a ceramic decoration workshop, before turning to other materials and techniques. That experience still shapes the way she builds a surface: her grounds are made of plaster, glue, bitumen, fabric and paper, then worked with acrylics and enamels, aluminium, gold leaf, stones and crystals. The result is relief work that shifts with the light and asks to be seen close up. She has exhibited in institutional venues in Italy and abroad, and also works on commission.

The declared aim of her research is serenity: she calls herself the painter of joy, because that is what she wants to leave with the viewer. Her painting moves between two poles that in her hands become one: geometry and the human face. On one side the mandalas, built in concentric circles with a patience that belongs to craft before it belongs to painting; on the other, figures emerging from densely decorated grounds, looking straight out at the viewer. Drawing on archetypes shared between East and West — rebirth, freedom, hope — she does not illustrate them: she translates them into rhythm, colour and matter.

Solo exhibitions include the Casa Professa Municipal Library in Palermo, Ravenna Art Gallery and Sala Studi Plautini in Sarsina; group exhibitions include the anthological exhibition at Ex STAC in Catanzaro. Awards include the First prize at the ASV 2024 edition of the Ferrara Film Festival, the Third prize at the Art Festival of the Pan Museum, Emmerich (Germany), and an award ceremony at the Campidoglio in Rome, as an author selected by the Alberoandronico association.

Selected works