Roman Road is honoured to be the first to take part in the Visiting Curators Initiative at Pipeline. On this occasion, we present Lize Bartelli. The Hour of the Star, an exhibition opening on 22 January 2026, in which Bartelli continues her exploration of symbol, gesture, and colour following her first London solo show, Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me (June 2025).
For her second London exhibition, Bartelli presents a new series of fourteen paintings in varying formats. Curated by Marisa Bellani, founder of Roman Road, the exhibition revolves around a central question: where does the desire to become end, and the performance of becoming begin?
The use of red lipstick is a key point of investigation, functioning both as a sign of aspiration and a marker of tension, where identity is always in formation and always performed. The colour red dominates the exhibition. “Red is the colour of contradiction,” the artist notes, serving as both a visual and conceptual thread throughout the series.
Bartelli invites viewers to consider the tension between private self and public image, and how desire, aspiration, and self-presentation unfold across both real and virtual spaces.
Friday 23 January – Saturday 21 February 2025
Private View: Thursday, 22 January, 6–8 pm
Pipeline, Second Floor, 1 Windmill St, London W1T 2JN