My first exhibit!
In 7 years of working as a professional illustrator and freelance artist, I never took part in a live art exhibit. Yes, I’ve joined collective projects to create charity zines and such, but never actually collaborated with other artists in person. This is mostly because I live in Italy and most of my working life happens online in anglophone countries… and some is certainly due to the years of lockdown. But I’ve always wanted to find some sort of community in my hometown of Turin, and I feel like I’m finally starting to!
When I visited the Bologna Book Fair in April I met many fantastic Italian artists - and some of them are also based in Turin, like Elena Della Rocca, an amazing illustrator and tattoo artist. We got talking, one thing led to another and in short order I ended up with a few new tattoos and a budding friendship. Elena and her partner Mica are the artists behind PPP Tatuaggini, a ‘stick-and-poke’ tattoo project mostly based at Shade Tattoo Studio in Turin. They host monthly walk-in events filled with tattoos, music, wine, art and queer vibes. I was lucky enough to be the featured artist this month with my project ‘Queer Rococo’, a series of paintings that re-imagine Rococo art with a contemporary eye.
I started working on this series in June 2022, inspired by a vintage promotional photo of ‘The New Aladdin’ featuring Lily Elsie and Adrienne Augarde. In this image, the two actresses exude such powerful sapphic vibes, that I simply had to draw them in my style. I was so happy with the result, that I looked for other paintings from the past to re-draw, at first as a simple stylistic exercise, and then as a collection in its own right.
I was drawn to flagship paintings of the Rococo style like ‘The Swing’ by Fragonard and ‘Narciso’ by Lemoyne. My intention in recreating them in my style was to imagine a past where queer people didn’t have to hide their identity but were free to be out in the world and depicted in popular works of art.
The event on Saturday 8th June was a great experience - it was lovely to see my art displayed on a wall, yes, but more than anything it was great to meet so many creative people in my town and feel like being part of a small community again!