Bizarre Beyond Belief Magazine - BBB

What was your first interaction with the art world and what prompted you to becoming an artist?

I believe that when we are born we already know what we will become, and I feel that I was born with a paintbrush in my hand. One of the first memories I have is of a day at the nursery. While I was drawing, my young friend came to me and said: “The flower you are drawing is too big”. At that moment, I remember thinking: “Why is she saying that? I am good at drawing, I know what I am doing”. After finishing primary school, I attended an art school and then a fine art academy. What I like of my profession is that I always knew that I wanted to pursue it. I studied to become an artist and, since I was born, I never thought of becoming anything else but an artist.

You currently live and work in Dorno and Rome, how would you describe the art scene in these places and how do you think they could improve?

Italy has a very important art history, but nowadays our country does not foster art, and being an artist in Italy today is really difficult. We have to pay sky-high taxes and there is a lot of competition: if we include both those who do it as a hobby and as a profession, it is estimated that there are about a million artists in Italy, so approximately 1 in every 60 people. Further to this, Italy is the third worse country in Europe for corruption. In our daily practice, it is obvious that one must have connections in order to move forward and that we have no meritocracy. Our institutions are in a critical state and are not able to help, so we all have to fund our work with our own money. I live in Dorno, a small town in the north of Italy, since I was born. Because of its small size, everyone knows everyone there and many family friends and even some schools help me to collect the recycled materials, objects and small toys that I need for my work. The advantage of living there is that I have a big house, so I can work in the open air and in large spaces when I have to create big artworks. It is a peaceful village and a relaxing place, although it can be a little foggy and cold in winter. I also have a small flat, which is my registered studio, not far from the city centre of Rome, 500 km away from Dorno. Rome is right in the middle of the country and it is a large city, full of history and art. Unfortunately, it is badly preserved and its art scene is very commercial and neglected by the general public. This further location allows me to have everything I need for my art available at a stone’s throw, including many fine art and DIY shops and a lot of flea markets where I can buy the plastic objects I use in my artworks. Rome is also well connected to the rest of Italy and to the world, which is convenient since at the moment I am travelling a lot for my exhibitions and events.

You attended a couple of art schools, can you describe your experience at these institutions?

Attending the art school Alessandro Volta in Pavia was very important for me. My teachers were very competent and experienced and they have been able to help me in my choices. I am still in contact with some of them and I hear from them daily. They are like friends for me and I still rely on them for advice and suggestions about my work, because their judgment has always been and will always be important for me. Last month I went back to my high school to talk about my art. I talked for two hours, showing some of my artwork and some pictures of it to the students, who were excited and enthusiastic to see what this school could give them the opportunity to become. It was one of the teachers who had the idea of inviting me back, and he funnily called this meeting “Sometimes they come back”, from the title of one of Stephen King’s short stories! The Academy of Fine Arts in Sanremo was also a very special place. Sanremo is a beautiful and artistic city, with a very important role in the Italian cinema and music scenes. The academy was very special and very selective: last year there were more professors than students, so we could benefit from being followed by our teachers on an almost one-to-one basis. I graduated with top marks from both schools: I really was a bit of a nerd!

Do you feel that you as an artist and as a person benefitted from attending these facilities?

I feel very proud that I have attended the art school Alessandro Volta in Pavia. This school opened exactly on the same year I reached the age to enter high school. Before then, Pavia did not have a public art school and Milano was too far from the town where I lived so, if it was not for this institution, I would have had to attend a school specialising in science or humanities and this would have irreparably changed my destiny. I also think I benefitted hugely from attending the Academy in Sanremo. It was thanks to one of the teachers that I had my first exhibition in 2010 and this lead to many other opportunities and even chances to exhibit around the world. I must thank all the teachers I had for their understanding approach and for their help, since without them I would not have become the person and artist I am today.

Since 2010, you have exhibited frequently, where was the most memorable show that you had and why?

The most memorable show was certainly the one we held on the Eiffel Tower, while my staff and I were in Paris for the Art Fair “Art Shopping” that was being held just under the Louvre Pyramid. The exhibition on the Eiffel Tower only lasted one day, but what a day it was! We woke up at 4 am and were ready in front of the Eiffel Tower at 6 am. We stayed on the tower until midnight. Only our enthusiasm could keep us going for so many hours! The Exhibition was held inside the Salon Gustave Eiffel, on the second floor, 57 meters above ground, and we had to carry the artworks and easels up the steps ourselves. It was going to be a very prestigious event that would have lasted until the evening, so I was wearing a nice, elegant long dress, jewels and high heels, since I could not get changed and there wasn’t any storage room available where we could leave our things. So I had to go up all the external stairs of the tower on my high heels, carrying easels, artworks, banners and all the material for the exhibition. It was the 23rd of October 2014, in the morning it was still dark and, on top of that, at one point it started to rain! I was on my feet all day, without sitting down, not even for a second, but it was worth it, because it was a very beautiful exhibition, a strongly emotional and wonderful experience. Here I have met some very important people from all over the world and it was Salvador Dalí’s son, José Van Roy Dalí, who opened the exhibition. In fact, it was there that I exhibited for the first time my portrait of Dalí. The exhibition was very successful and people were enthusiastic about my art. It all ended with a wonderful midnight dinner in the restaurant on the Tower.

You often work with recycled materials, why did you decide to use these materials?

The plastic materials that I use are part of me. I always keep every little thing, because I am very attached to memories, but more importantly, because I have always been taught that things should not be thrown away, as long as they work. The first artwork I have completed when I was 19 was the portrait of Marilyn Monroe. It was made with all those items that, although they had lost their original function, I did not want to throw away. I wanted to give them a second life, a second chance. The recycled material, that has lost its original function, in my works acquires the function of "colour" and this way it earns a higher status as part of an art object. These are things that people throw away, one could say that they are rubbish, but at the same time they could be defined as Pop, since they are objects that we all know and recognize as part of our everyday life. Through my art, I want to send a message in support of recycling and sustainability, making people aware of the fact that everything can have a second life and can be recycled in many ways, and that even garbage, the most humble matter, can become the thing that more than anything else elevates us spiritually: Art.

How does the creative process using recycled goods differ from using paints, metal or wood?

I used to say that my art, what I call “Lady Be Art”, for me is like painting. I have studied and I know how to create good figurative paintings, but for years now I have been replacing paints with plastic trinkets. With them, I can obtain shadows, lights, perspective, depth, distinct expressions and all the nuances and chiaroscuro I could create using a brush, because the materials I use cover a whole range of colours. Of course, this process requires a long and hard work of research and preparation. I collect the objects from different sources (flea markets, e-bay, friends, schools, or even finding them myself on the seashore) and then I split them by colour. Finally, I cut and model them, and split each colour into different shades. The result are as many bins full of objects separated by colour, and for each colour a full palette of shades ready to be used when the time comes to glue the pieces on the preparatory drawing on the table. What I would like to underline is that my material is never coloured after I compose the art piece. Each object is kept in its original colour, because I want people to recognize it as it is and therefore it must not be altered in any way. Rightly enough, many art critics and art experts define my art as "contemporary mosaic"; mosaic is an art with an ancient origin, that is originally interpreted by me with objects typical of this time and that will remain as witnesses of this era. So, gender-wise, my art is closer to mosaic than to painting and sculpture, although when I am creating it I feel like I am painting.

You tend to use iconic artists as subject matter, what is it about these individuals that draws your attention?

I do not only portray artists, but pop icons in general. I portrayed celebrities from the world of cinema and music such as Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Paul McCartney and John Lennon as solo artists (in fact, my name “Lady Be” was inspired by its assonance with the song “Let it be”, that is very important for me), cartoons like Pinocchio or Batman, some political icons such as Che Guevara, Mao Tse-tung and Hitler and some fashion brands like Elio Fiorucci’s dwarf and the logo of the leather manufacturer Braccialini. I also create portraits on request. What I prefer to do, however, is to portray iconic artists, because I hope that one day their faces will become known to the public as much as those of personalities of cinema, politics and music. There are not many artists whose face is known by everyone and not only by art lovers. I believe that artists should be remembered as they are and not only through their artworks, because their life, their personality and even their physical appearance, especially for pop artists, is important.

Out of all of the artists you have created portraits of, who was your favourite to make and why?

I have created portraits of Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Frida Kahlo and Van Gogh. I particularly enjoyed portraying Frida Kahlo because of the way she lived her life and because she is an icon, not only as an artist but also as a woman. Her life as a Mexican Surrealist painter reveals a woman of extreme magnetism and originality, an artist whose sensual vibrancy comes straight from her own experiences: her childhood near Mexico City during the Mexican Revolution, a devastating accident at the age of eighteen that left her crippled and unable to bear children, her turbulent marriage to muralist Diego Rivera and his intermittent love affairs, her association with the Communist Party, her absorption in Mexican folklore and culture and her dramatic love of spectacle. You might not believe it, but I can say that in my country, today, it is still difficult to be a female artist, especially when you are quite young. Often, when I exhibit, I am labelled as “the youngest artist” or “the only female artists”, and people judge me also because of this. For all these reasons, I feel very much on the same wavelength as Frida Kahlo.

What would you say is your biggest challenge as a practicing artist?

I would like to produce sculptures, but because of the technique I use this could be very difficult. My art was initially conceived as painting, it was meant to be bi-dimensional and I think it would be difficult apply it to 3D, but I am sure that the result would be spectacular! On a separate note, my greatest aspiration would also be, one day, to be exhibited at the MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, although I expect the journey that leads to such an achievement to be very long and complex since only a few artists are awarded this great honour.

With summer upon us, what can our readers expect of Lady Be in the coming months?

I am getting ready to bring my art to different parts of the world and at the same time I am working with one of the galleries where I normally exhibit in Italy for a prestigious catalogue about Plastic Art. On April 21th I will be in Milan to receive the Tiepolo award and then I will move to Venice for an important exhibition, the “Biennale Riviera del Brenta” on 23-25 April. On 9-12 June I will exhibit some new and innovative artworks in Verona’s Art Fair, the “Triennal of Contemporary Art”, within the “Museo Italia” section. Then, on the 22nd, I will have an important exhibition in Castel dell'Ovo, a historical castle in Naples. Finally, on May 20th I will be at Palazzo Brancaccio in Rome, where I will be receiving the Coliseum Award. This summer I will be traveling to America: on July 29th my art will be included in a video- exhibition in a conference room in Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood and on October 13th I will present one of my artworks via a video presentation in a conference room in Manhattan, New York. Finally, on October 16th I will take part in the award-giving ceremony that will mark the conclusion of this series of events in an important conference hall in Washington. After the summer, my artworks and I will return to Paris, where between 21-23 October I will be at “Art Shopping”, an Art Fair held inside the Carrousel Du Louvre, under the Louvre Pyramid. I will come back to Italy on November 5th to open a Solo Exhibition with all my new artworks at the gallery L’Alfiere in Turin, which is also an auction house. I would recommend to all the readers to check my website regularly to keep up-to-date with all my events and dates: www.ladybeart.com

Art Reveal Magazine - June 2016

Briefly describe the work you do.

I do Contemporary Mosaics totally made of little pieces of plastic and toys, recycled objects, pencils, jewels, plastic cutlery, plastic caps, buttons. I am the inventor of my technique, and I coined the name of Contemporary Mosaic, although at the beginning I used it more to explain how my works of art are made. The definition of Contemporary Mosaic was later confirmed by art critics, experts, historians and gallery owners who, over the years have worked with me to make my works known. Among the critics that wrote about my art: Dr. Francesco Saverio Russo, Dr. Salvatore Russo, Sandro Serradifalco, Paolo Levi, Prof. Nuccio Mula. Dott. Adolfo Carozzi, curator, historian and gallery owner, is taking care of an important publication about Mosaics in which he explains the history of mosaics until nowadays, talking of my art as the new frontier of the mosaic. Many articles, newspapers, catalogs and magazines talks about my art as “Mosaic 2.0” or, “the new mosaic”. The plastic materials that I use are part of me. I always keep every little thing, because I am very attached to memories, but more importantly, because I have always been taught that things should not be thrown away, as long as they work. The first artwork I have completed when I was 19 was the portrait of Marilyn Monroe. It was made with all those items that, although they had lost their original function, I did not want to throw away.

What themes do you pursue?

I am specialized in portraits. I portrayed celebrities from the world of cinema and music such as Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Steve McQueen, Madonna, Freddy Mercury, David Bowie, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Paul McCartney and John Lennon as solo artists (in fact, my name “Lady Be” was inspired by its assonance with the song “Let it be”, that is very important for me), cartoons like Pinocchio or Batman, some political icons such as Che Guevara, Mao Tse-tung, Benito Mussolini, and Hitler, our Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and some fashion brands like Elio Fiorucci’s dwarf and the logo of the leather manufacturer Braccialini. I also create portraits on request. What I prefer to do, however, is to portray iconic artists, because I hope that one day their faces will become known to the public as much as those of personalities of cinema, politics and music. There are not many artists whose face is known by everyone and not only by art lovers. I believe that artists should be remembered as they are and not only through their artworks, because their life, their personality and even their physical appearance, especially for pop artists, is important.

What is the most challenging part about being an artist?

People often consider me a very good artist, an high-level figurative but they think that my art doesn’t have a deep significance, that does not convey a profound message or a hidden meaning, but it's pure beauty and appearance. The most challenging part is making people understand that it is not so, indeed, my art is born precisely to convey a strong message. My artworks are figures made of recycled material, material that were “disused”. Were used materials that have lost their original function to become “colour”. In my paintings, paradoxically, a diamond and a broken toy acquire the same value, the artistic one, because they are used as colour, like pieces of a mosaic. My pieces of work are born with a purpose: to focus attention towards the reuse of recycled materials to create art, as well as looking to the concrete and energy. So my art was born not only as creative form, but as awareness to the problem of recycle. It's a warning to the actual and future world, a world where more and more resources miss, and to survive it has to become more sustainable. A world that fights against the tendency to consumerism and waste, the accumulation of "disposable" things increasingly difficult to dispose of. The issue of recycle was a topic discussion for many years, but no one has focused on artistic recycle. I give a new life to objects that have lost their original function, elevating them to the altar of Art. My name is “Lady Be”, and Be, is not only a tribute to the Beatles, but it means that the being must always win on appearances, it is "Be" not "Appear".

How would you describe the art scene in your area?

Italy has a very important art history, but nowadays our country does not foster art, and being an artist in Italy today is really difficult. We have to pay sky-high taxes and there is a lot of competition: if we include both those who do it as a hobby and as a profession, it is estimated that there are about a million artists in Italy, so approximately 1 in every 60 people. Further to this, Italy is the third worse country in Europe for corruption. In our daily practice, it is obvious that one must have connections in order to move forward and that we have no meritocracy. Our institutions are in a critical state and are not able to help, so we all have to fund our work with our own money. I live in Dorno, a small town in the north of Italy, since I was born. Because of its small size, everyone knows everyone there and many family friends and even some schools help me to collect the recycled materials, objects and small toys that I need for my work. The advantage of living there is that I have a big house, so I can work in the open air and in large spaces when I have to create big artworks. It is a peaceful village and a relaxing place, although it can be a little foggy and cold in winter. I also have a small flat, which is my registered studio, not far from the city centre of Rome, 500 km away from Dorno. Rome is right in the middle of the country and it is a large city, full of history and art. Unfortunately, it is badly preserved and its art scene is very commercial and neglected by the general public. This further location allows me to have everything I need for my art available at a stone’s throw, including many fine art and DIY shops and a lot of flea markets where I can buy the plastic objects I use in my artworks. Rome is also well connected to the rest of Italy and to the world, which is convenient since at the moment I am travelling a lot for my exhibitions and events.

What art do you most identify with?

Of course with POP Art. I prefer, for this question, answer with the beautiful criticism that Dr. Francesco Saverio Russo wrote to me: “Lady Be and her Personal Pop Art” “The art of Lady Be, is rooted in the artistic movement, born in the 50s and consecrated in the year '60, called Pop Art. Pop Art was founded with Robert Raushenberg, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. The well-known American current, in a cold manner recycles, and sometimes totally impersonal the images presented by the media. Coca-Cola becomes the object of worship for the art of Andy Warhol, there is a real obsessive mania in reproducing a trendy and common object. The art is not created for the people, but is defined popular because mass-produced. The founder of pop art invents the "blotted line" technique that is to draw on a very permeable sheet, then applying it, when it is still wet, on a number of other sheets which become "originals". The result is a sign whose irregularities are due more to chance than to the author's will (…) (…) Lady Be recycle, her recycling is much different from the Masters of Pop Art, her recycling is done with popular items, mass objects that we all know and we have handled since we were children and continue to see today in the role of parents, grandparents or simply human beings. The cold and impersonal, is transformed into a "Personal Pop Art", in a personal and engaging art, the viewer is forced to touch the artwork to try to capture its secrets, its innermost essence; an art that is over and over again because it's something familiar but at the same time still to be discovered. Lady Be Art is Pop because here we have the depiction of idols or myths in which the masses tend to identify, think about the figure of Marilyn Monroe or Audrey Hepburn, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalì. The color palette is replaced by large containers of objects according to color, the artist uses the original colors of objects for the construction of the Artwork(…) (…) The works of Lady Be, even on the same subject, are totally different, the objects used vary, and also their position changes from work to work. We are witnessing for the first time to a new interpretation of Pop, Art that is really Popular because people, unconsciously "deliver" the color-objects to artist. Oscar Wilde said, "Life imitates art more than art imitates life." The artist understands and agrees with these words expressed by the Irish writer and she also dedicates to portraits, she portrays the characters of the mass, turning them into works of art, making them immortal (…)” Dr. Francesco Saverio Russo (Art Critic and Consultant)

What’s the best art tip you’ve ever received?

In 2013 I took part to the I Biennale of Palermo, It was a special and prestigious event because the selection was really hard and it was presented by two important italian art critics: Vittorio Sgarbi and Paolo Levi. Vittorio Sgarbi is an important university professor and one of the most important Italian politicians, ex commissioner of Venice Biennale. After having run after him for a long time, I was finally able to show him my work. He does not make me compliments, but a comment: “what a mess!”. Then, he gave me a very valuable advice: streamline the work by replacing a resin background to the background filled with pieces, which made the work difficult to understand. it was a real breakthrough for me; In fact, my works have become lighter, the subjects most distinguished and highlighted and, furthermore, the work they use in their application is also much less, also reducing implementation times. Now, I realize rarely works composed entirely of pieces, without the resin background; only when the subject calls for it.

What are your future plans as an artist?

I am getting ready to bring my art to different parts of the world and at the same time I am working with one of the galleries where I normally exhibit in Italy for a prestigious catalogue about Plastic Art, that will be testimonial of my Contemporary Mosaic. On 9-12 June I will exhibit my first sculpture, a portrait of Marilyn Monroe, and a special big Artwork against Domestic Violence (the Beaten Barbie) in Verona’s Art Fair, the “1st Triennale of Contemporary Art - International Art Expo”, within the “Museo Italia” section. Then, on the 22nd, I will have an important exhibition in Castel dell'Ovo, a historical castle in Naples. Finally, on June 26th I will have an important Art Auction, the proceeds will go to charity. I am also taking part to the auctions of “Charity Stars” with my artworks, donating 30% to important charitable organizations. This summer I will be traveling to America: on July 29th my art will be included in a video- exhibition in a conference room in Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood. On September 17th I will be in Venice to receive the Casanova Award in the special event “Venice in Art” that will be held at Palazzo Frangini. On October 13th I will come back to the USA to present one of my artworks via a video presentation in a conference room in Manhattan, New York. Finally, on October 16th I will take part in the award-giving ceremony that will mark the conclusion of this series of events in an important conference hall in Washington. After the summer, my artworks and I will return to Paris, where between 21-23 October I will be at “Art Shopping”, an Art Fair held inside the Carrousel Du Louvre, under the Louvre Pyramid. I will come back to Italy on November 5th to open a Solo Exhibition with all my new artworks at the gallery L’Alfiere in Turin, which is also an auction house. People often ask me: how can you also have time to do the artworks? Well, I have always managed to find it…but sometimes I can’t sleep at night! However, I would recommend to all the readers to check my website regularly to keep up-to-date with all my events and dates: www.contemporarymosaic.com