Meet Valentina Formisano | Artist and Illustrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Valentina Formisano and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Valentina, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
There is no a really clear thought process behind the desire of beeing an artist: it’s more a sort of impulse, something that drives you in the right direction since you were young, at the beginning of your approach to the artistic applications; something that leads you in the right way, to a concreete path that has to be built step by step. Is not something that you planned from the beginning. Especially in Italy, the country where I was born and where I live, art careers are not really clear: there are no schools that prepares you for art-business but just Academies of Fine Arts, places where “art is for art”, just like as if art was not a real work but something with an “aura”, something that you do because you are a gifted person with something to express. But after a lot of years spent creating and painting and thinking, I moved to Rome where I could get in touch with a variety of galleries, museums and foundations that manage art and money between cultural events and market so I started planning my art-business with a more clear vision,
First of all I understood the importance of the pubblic relations, something that was totally absent in my artistic life since I’ve been lived in countryside, apart from the city. So the first step is to attend a lot of exhibitions and talk to curators, museum directors, other artists and so on. After that I’m trying to show my work to some gallerists, sorting that ones that use to sell kinds of artworks that are next to mine. Simultaneously I’m looking for articles, mentions on magazines, blogs and websites.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
In art, everything has been done. More or less. It’s not easy to differenciate your own work from others. You just try to express something that burns into you, not careing about originality or anything else, just create. But soon you have to face the reality, the fact that you’re not special at all. That said, I can talk about my paintings and installations and hope that my philosophy, the thoughts behind the pieces could be appreciable even if not so original compared to the main artists I’ve been looking during my developement: people like Damien Hirst, Jenny Saville and all the members of the YBA (Young British Artists). My work is about the body and the death and I tried with very small means and small financial resources to represent the body (something that we own, that we have under our eyes constantly) as a medium to deep, philosophical thought. The materials I use are oil on canvas for the paintings and copper, plexiglas, led lights and homemade acids for the installations.

Talking about my brand of illustrations face/NOFACE® instead, I could assert that a certain originality pervade my drawings. I’ve been inspired by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (an italian painter from the 16th century) but I’ve turned the concept very contemporary and, I think, with a lot of virtuosity (not just a technical one but even about the conception and the design). I represent iconic characters of the world of art, music, politics, cinema, history, science and more with an universe of items, symbols and images that narrate the biography of the person. A whole life in a “simple” draw, totally handmade with a ball-point pen on paper.
Nowadays we are accustomed to perfect digital images created by AI and in parallel to questionable informal arts that left us with the doubt about the genuineness of the operation. My illustrations are tecnically complex (and, I know, the technique is easily reproducible by AI) but at the same time contains ideas, complex figurations and joints, and (something that AI won’t never manage) irony. That’s what for I’m proud of my illustrations, in times when especially artists are threaten by technology.

It was easy and not easy to get where I am. First of all, I’m actually nowhere, in the sense that I didn’t reach yet any important position in my career. That’s the easy part. To get nowhere yet.
The worst part is to understand every time you get somewhere the next step to attempt. Sometimes everything happens with the intervent of a good dose of luck, sometimes nothing happens for a long time and everything is so frustrating. What I’ve learned in all this years is that you have just to work, work and work: at the end something good will come because is just a matter of time… if your art worths, your art will emerge.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
A lot of people have been helping me during my studies and all my attempts of showing and selling artworks; for sure with encouragements and words of trust. Maybe all them believed in my talent more than I ever do. But the most importat person that I could not miss to mention is for sure my graphic Ivano Cozzoli. A professional, a friend, someone that since I was a student saw something in me and tried to lay the foundations for a collaboration. At that time I was not farseeing but after some years we ended up working together. He is my consultant (in a lot of fields) and an expert of materials (paper, plastic, fabric and every printable surface) and helps me to realize every kind of idea I have, expecially in my illustration business: posters, calendars, shoppers, notebooks, etc. I’ve recently registered my brand face/NOFACE® and with Ivano I’m trying to launch a good business.

Website: www.valentinaformisano.com

Instagram: face_noface

Facebook: face/NOFACE

Other: valentinaformisanoblog.wordpress.com