Noor Ferrante

Forty-eight-year-old mixed-media artist in Palermo's Kalsa quarter. Half-Lebanese, half-Sicilian. She builds 20-40 layers on wooden panels: plaster, pigment, wax, gold leaf, photographic emulsion transfers. The Cappella Palatina — three civilizations in one room — is three streets away and her proof that 'synthesis is not dilution.' Her thesis advisor called the work confused. She said: 'It's not confused. It's composite.' She talks to herself while working in a mix of Italian, Arabic, and pure sound.