MARTINA VANDA, Born in Rome in 1978, Martina Vanda specializes in experimental illustration at Esag in Paris, where she begins her career. She is one of the most prominent contemporary Italian illustrators.
Her research starts on books, where letters and words get turned upside down, stretched and deformed in all their details. Text becomes one of the artist’s crucial means of expression, and with it come the mistakes and erasure marks that take a central role in the artworks; artworks tied by a narrative that flows effortlessly in multiple directions, among the hundreds of independent yet connected pages and canvases.
Her creative process consists of overcrowded moments, ambivalent emotions, feelings and thoughts that are slowly digested and elaborated into a blunt synthesis. A word, a group of lines, a smudge. Simple elements, alive with meaning. The choice to work exclusively in black on white further demonstrates her need to summarize. Words substitute images, marks become noises, and the scene takes life on the silent background of a white canvas.
Martina Vanda enjoys a playful approach to everyday life, which populates her art of simple yet meaningful moments that every one of us faces each day. In this series of rooms and kitchens, the artist invites us to enter the most intimate parts of life, the chaos of clanking crockery and messy sinks, and the peace of a warm duvet, a synthesis of life that reminds us that every single day is meaningful, and life is nothing more than a series of blissful moments for those who can see beauty in the simplest things, like a broken dish or a whistling coffee machine.
As an author/illustrator she has published picture books in France, Italy, Spain, Mexico and China, winning several prizes. She has worked with museums such as MAXXI, MACRO, Palaexpo, and Printed Matter ink in NY, and has exhibited her illustrations in art fairs in Europe, Japan, Korea and China.
Exhibitions
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
2016 group / “Illustrators Exhibition” – Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Italy
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
2015 Guest artist 798 International Art Festival of Beijing – Cina
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
2005 group/ BJCEM, Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean
2003 group/ “Un certo sguardo”. Fair Piú libri piú liberi, Rome.
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
2009 selected/ CJ Picture Book Awards, Korea
2009 WINNER/ Premio Qwerty, Spain
2006 Annual Italian Illustrators (ed. Mondadori), Italy
2005 Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean (BJCEM)
2004 mention/ Premio Iceberg, Bolonia
2022 group / invited artist / 40° Mostra internazionale della ceramica d’arte di Gualdo Tadino
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
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/ IBBY Italia Silent Auction – Palazzo d’Accorsio, Bologna
2004 group/ “Iceberg” – Sala Borse, Bologna
2000 solo/ “Ultimo piano” – MANIDOPERA. Cittá di castello, Italy
2022 – Pirandello Society of America Journal / “Siamo tutti pupi” ; eds. Lisa Sarti and Michael Subialka, www.pirandellointranslation.org
2016 – DPI Magazine. Art Quarter vol.13 / featured artist interview – Taiwan
2015 – “Adone” Scienze e Lettere, Italy
2015 – “Sirene” Scienze e Lettere, Italy
2014; 2019 “Ménage à Deux” TunnellingP self editions, Italy
2014 “El lenguaje de los arboles” editorial Fineo, Mexico
2014 “Les fraises sauvages” Lirabelle editions, France 2014; Orietal Babies & Kids Co., China
2013 “Je m’en vais” TunnellingP , Italy
2008-2019 “¡Estela, grita muy fuerte!” Editorial Fineo, Spain/Mexico. 150.000 copies sold, winners of several prizes.
