“Art has always been by my side, in every moment of my life”
AT: Where are you from and how/why did you start engaging with art?
AM: My origins are from the south of Italy, Pulia. My parents, however, gave me birth in Rome, as my grandfather was transferred because of what he was doing: restoring sculptures and antique furnitures. Art has always been inside me. Even as a child I went to my father’s painting studio without anyone telling me what to do and I started painting out of necessity. Art has always been by my side, in every moment of my life.
AT: When did it become serious?
AM: I started thinking about art as something “serious” as soon as I started learning about the media and the subjects. It served to give shape to what I had in my mind. The collaborations with galleries made me understanding the dynamics (not formalized) of the system, of course. If this is what you want to know.
AT: Are there any person who has been significant in your breakthrough as an artist?
AM: All the meetings with the most harsh people were fundamental for me to grow up. It started with my father and his criticism about my painting, then a teacher who introduced me to the rules in order to destroy them right afterwards. Up to all the writers who gave me important reflections among thousands pages of books.
AT: What is your first approach to the work? How would you describe your practice?
AM: My work comes from my stomach, from screenshots that I instinctively capture on social medias. I archive these shots and I let them depositing like wine. Then I wait for them to come back to me. There is a work of composition and absolute understanding. Painting gives me all the time to metabolize scenes, colors and meanings. I am a person who needs time.
5092019.jpeg, 2019, acrylic, silty earth, pencil and steel on canvas. 200x200x4cm | Courtesy the artist | Photography by Studio Perotti.
AT: What do you aim to reach with your work?
AM: I want to understand the status quo of painting in a contemporary society dominated by images consumed on social media. I always try to launch myself into a future vision and understand how it can intervene on the narration of our present.
AT: What are your favourite tools and materials for working?
AM: Cellphone, acrylic, cigarette, music, scotch.
AT: What do you feel while you work? Do you usually think about the final outcome beforehand?
AM: I don’t think of anything, that’s what I like about the production process. I totally immerge myself in the surface I’m dealing with, I enjoy all the layers, the obsessive deepening. Then, I am also amazed of the final result, sometimes.
AT: How do you understand that a work is finished?
AM: Among the most complex things is the understanding of the end. An artist always thinks he can add something. There is always a possible improvement that can be done. A job could go on to infinity, and this even more for me with the .jpeg series. I can cover, reopen the canvas as and when I prefer. Let’s say that some works give them time to understand them. I have to break away for a while to see if they are really finished or if something is missing.
1092019.jpeg, 2019, acrylic and pencil on canvas, 40x50x4cm | Courtesy Private Collection.
2082019.jpeg, 2019, acrylic and pencil on canvas. 40x50x4cm | Courtesy Private Collection.
AT: Where does the inspiration for the work come from?
AM: My work searches for the aesthetic paradigm of social networks and pop cultures affiliated to them. It is also essential to inspire me to distance myself as much as possible from my subjective vision of a given image. I make this to embrace a kind of representation or cliché of representation.
AT: Are there any artists who influenced your works? Why?
AM: There are those who showed me poetry like Agnetti, Duchamp or Fontana, or authenticity and purity like Kounellis, Fioroni and Marisa Merz, others the technique, others still an aesthetic of which I feel like a son; see the AES + F that I respect a lot.
AT: How important is the role of social media for you?
AM: My work starts with social media, so it’s very important.
8022019.jpeg, 2019, acrylic and pencil on canvas. 100x150x4cm | Courtesy Private Collection | Photography by Bruno Bani.
28022019.jpeg, 2019, acrylic and pencil on canvas. 100x150x4cm | Courtesy the artist and Renata Fabbri Arte Contemporanea | Photography by Bruno Bani.
AT: As an artist, what is your point of view about the contemporary art system?
AM: I believe we need to open a chapter only about the contemporary art system in Italy. Unfortunately, it’s a system that tries to have an international purpose. Unfortunately, because of high taxes and very few concessions, suffocates daily. An artist is increasingly forced to self-finance and to look at what happens outside our country.
AT: What do you find to be the most challenging or daunting thing about pursuing art? What is the most rewarding part of working as an artist?
AM: As I said before, economics discourages me. Another thing that makes me suffering is the lack of cohesion with other artists. Looking at others is not a danger, on the contrary, we should see each others like companions. What gratifies me, which has an absolute value for me, is the search for freedom, all the steps that every artist makes every day. The struggle continues.
AT: What do you do besides art?
AM: I love and look at the sky.
AT: What are your goals and expectations for the future?
AM: To always be true to myself.
23012019.jpeg, acrylic and pencil on canvas, 100x150x4cm, 2019 | Courtesy the artist and Renata Fabbri Arte Contemporanea.
Born in Roma, Italy (1991). Lives and works between Milano and Roma, IT
