Simafra

SIMAFRA (Riccardo Prosperi) was born in Florence in 1985 and he started painting in 2000, taking individual lessons from master Ottavio Troiano and at the same time working in a famous Florentine workshop, learning the art of restoration and decoration. 

As early as 2004 he began to exhibit in Italian and foreign galleries. Between 2008 and 2010 he stayed in Paris and in Germany, collaborating with the “Ken’s Art” gallery in Florence, “Galerie Golkar” in Bonn and “Infantellina Contemporary” in Berlin. In 2012 he took part in the Kiev International Biennial “Art Arsenal” and founded “La Bottega Moderna”, the artist’s atelier and independent cultural space in Florence. 

Between 2013 and 2014 he took part in the Odds & Sods group show at the “Art Moor House” and “Cadogan Contemporary” galleries in London, and collaborated with the “Virgine Barrou Planquart” gallery in Paris. Since 2016, he has been collaborating permanently with the “Maddox Gallery” in London, with which he participates in the Houston Art Fair and in “Art Across Borders” – an international fair in Bahrain. In 2018 Simafra created a series of works dedicated to Lapland, one of these became part of the prestigious “Alessandro Grassi” collection, two other works are exhibited at the “Kakslauttanen Museum” in Finland. 

The editorial staff of “Exibart” inserts it in the publication “222 Emerging artists to invest in in 2018“. Again through “Maddox Gallery” in 2019 he began to exhibit in the States (Los Angeles), at the same time creating a new collaboration with the “Belvedere Art Space” gallery in Beirut.

Color is vital form in Simafra’s works, it has no limit, it generates surprise, admiration, it expresses the artist’s thought, guided by musical notes of poetic creativity, where archetypes and symbols intertwine in profound reflections on life and death , on the reason for our existence, in a connected world, never superficial, where nature is its father and mother. Dense, immediate brushstrokes that involve the viewer, revealing a journey in which the universe comes to life, showing all its strength.

In 2020 at the peak of his career, the artist made an unexpected decision, he faked his death as an artist and moved his studio to the Tuscan countryside, to devote himself to a new, even stronger and more significant inner path, to reconnect with its creator ego. After two years, at the end of 2022, the artist announces his rebirth like a phoenix from the ashes, and exhibits an extraordinary series of paintings in the solo exhibition “Quarantanove” at the Pastificio Cerere in Rome. These recent works are part of the research dedicated to the relationship between Man and Nature, symbols of a reborn artist. Critically acclaimed, this new series will take the artist to an exhibition this fall in Bahrain and this winter in New York.

His paintings are exhibited around the world, from the home of actress Cameron Diaz in New York to Palazzo Tod’s in Milan, from the Cipriani restaurant in Ibiza to the homes of illustrious international collectors, including the Princess of Bahrain.