Losers at Lunch
Mixed media, 71 x 51 cm, 2025
 
Artwork Statement
Strawberries and sleepovers. Moonlight by the fridge. Lonely when there’s no one there, and lonely when there is. We tell each other everything, sometimes not enough. A strange kind of telepathy, to love and to be loved. Fighting and forgiving, still, giving and giving. No one else could understand the colour we are living. Based on a photo taken a year after graduating high school, Losers at Lunch captures the intimacy of female friendships amongst the loneliness of neurodivergent girlhood. The piece shares a story of connection, of finding one person with whom you can communicate without speaking, where the ability to express yourself wholly and truthfully, not shying away from the vibrancy of your lived experience, becomes a lifeline in a world of perpetual misunderstanding.
 
Artist Bio
Nazarena Peralta is an Argentinian-born, Naarm-based mixed media artist whose work reflects her neurodiverse and diasporic identity. Inspired by nature and circus symbolism, she blends acrylic, oil pastel, embroidery, and metalwork into vibrant, textured pieces. As a self-taught artist, Peralta uses art as a tool for self-expression through the turbulence of womanhood, offering comfort, connection, and belonging.