Martina Vanda

Bio

Martina Vanda born in Rome in 1978, specialized in experimental illustration at the Esag in Paris. She is one of the leading Italian artists in the contemporary drawing scene.

In Martina Vanda's works, while the parallelism with the "book" is evident, not so much as the final result, but rather as a metaphor for the meaning of the drawing itself, a further step is taken, and the sheet of paper, no longer merely a physical support for concepts and narratives, becomes itself pregnant with meaning and valuable as it is capable of occupying physical space and modifying its content.

Her artistic research begins among the pages of books, where letters and shapes begin to be explored, overturned, and analyzed in every detail. The text, as much as the image, becomes an essential expressive form for the artist, just as erasures and mistakes play a fundamental role in the content of the work, and the pages, as separate yet interconnected physical spaces, on which the narrative moves in multiple directions. Martina Vanda's journey is composed of crowded moments, ambivalent emotions, sensations, and thoughts, which are subsequently digested and processed until a synthesis is obtained. A word, a series of strokes, a smudge, simple elements that communicate forcefully to the observer.

The choice of using black on white is also evidence of a need for summary that the artist has carried forward over time. A single right word rather than an image, a doodle to describe a noise, a blank sheet for silence. Ironic, carefree, and intelligent, Martina Vanda gives voice to the outspoken teenager we all wished we could be, a brilliant Lucifer whose genius manifests itself in her absolute ability to break the rules without any fear.

Her gently scandalous artworks tell us moments of life, emotions, and fears, with which each of us faces daily, from the broken refrigerator that disturbs us with its petulant noise and the dreaded Monday morning, to the most intimate reflections on love, time, and the complexity of our existence. A calibrated alternation of moments that the observer can playfully combine to create their own story.

Just as in drawing, the unique voice of the artist also becomes strong in ceramics, with dirty dishes, broken ceramics, flower vases for non-lovers of flowers, and the highly appreciated series dedicated to Alice in Wonderland, where the artist writes to us on a plate that it is not very nice of us to sit down if we have not been invited.

Between irony and challenges to the observer, Martina invites us to remember that life is ultimately a wonderful game, in which we win and lose, but in which we could always set our own rules.

Esposizioni

Main Exhibitions:

2023 solo / Back To Fire - Fondazione Giorgio de Marchis; art curator Ilari Valbonesi, L’Aquila

2022 group / invited artist / 40° Mostra internazionale della ceramica d’arte di Gualdo Tadino

2022 Franklin Evans Perpetual studio during What a wonderful World – Museo MAXXI, Rome

2022 Contribution / Gianni Berengo Gardin L’occhio come mestiere – Museo MAXXI; art curator M. Guccione e A. Mauro, Rome

2021 Festival / Alice in Lockdown animations – MIAMI Film Festival; Miami

2020 group / The Smile f the Sphinx – Collegium Artisticum ; art curator Ilari Valbonesi, Sarajevo

2019 solo / Daily News – Blu Hole art gallery ; art curator Valentina Ferrari, Rome

2018 solo / It wasn’t very civil pf you to sit down without being invited – Sintra Gallery, Gothemborg, Sweden

2016 group / Il tè di Alice – Galleria Nuages, Milan

2016 solo / Le Grand Bo – Interno 14, Rome, It.

2016 group / “Illustrators Exhibition” – Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Italy

2015 group/ “Portafortuna” – Spazio Varco arte contemporanea, l’Aquila

2015 solo / Martina Vanda Works – Polarville, l’Aquila

2105 solo / “Ceramics” – Sintra Gallery, Göteborg, Sweden

2015 solo / “Siamo tutti pupi” – Teatro Villa Pamphilj Scuderie Villino Corsini, Rome

2015 group / “Illustrators Exhibition” – Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Italy, Itabashi Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan – Otani Memorial Art Museum, Hyogo, Japan – Kawara Museum, Takahama, Japan – Ishikawa Nanao Art Museum, Nanao, Japan

2012/2013 group/ “La Violenza Illustrata” – Casa delle donne Onlus, Bologna

2012 solo/ “Martina Vanda” – Love and Dissent Gallery, Rome

2012 group/ “Le Metamorfosi del Viaggiatore” – Palazzo delle Stelline, Milano

2012 group/ “Illustrators Exhibition” – Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Italy, Itabashi Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan – Otani Memorial Art Museum, Hyogo, Japan – Yokkaichi Municipal Museum, Mie, Japan – Ishikawa Nanao Art Museum, Ishikawa, Japan – Nagashima Museum, Nagashima, Japan

2012 group/ IBBY Italia Silent Auction – Palazzo d’Accorsio, Bologna

2005 group/ BJCEM, Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean

2004 group/ “Iceberg” – Sala Borse, Bologna

2003 group/ “Un certo sguardo”. Fair Piú libri piú liberi, Rome.

2000 solo/ “Ultimo piano” – MANIDOPERA. Cittá di castello, Italy

Awards:

2021 New Media Film Festival of Miami – “Alice in Lockdown” animation

2019 BIBF Illustrators exhibition – Beijing

2016 Illustrators Exhibition – Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Italy

2015 Illustrators Exhibition – Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Italy

2012 Illustrators Exhibition – Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Italy

2011 selected/ BIB Biennial of Bratislava