T H O M A S
F R A N C H I N A
M .A .D . G A L L E RY MODA
ARTE
DESIGN
Analisi critica a cura della Dott.ssa Carlotta Biffi I like living, breathing better than working...my art is that of living. Each second, each breath is a work which is inscribed nowhere, which is neither visual nor cerebral, it's a sort of constant euphoria. Marcel Duchamp
Striking, pop, absolutely original. This is Thomas Franchina, well-known american artist who introduces us to the astonishment of his showy, childlike suggestions: his style and technique in fact, definitely intriguing, provides a brand new look on limitations and contradictions of our contemporarity. In the meaningless show era, in the domain of advertising, no one could ever deny the huge power granted to a single striking image: images are icons, and our icons often look like mannequins dressed with shiny values. Franchina's icons – no other way to define them – don't try to deny their nature and task: they rather accept it, displaying themselves just like models at a fashion show. Speaking the language of commercials the artist reaches a wide audience, sometimes even increased by choosing very popular subjects: good examples could be The Walkind Dead serie, such as the work Khaleesi, inspired by the character of George R. Martin well-known saga Game of Thrones. This main feature of his style also facilitates the integration with other artistic expressions, such as fashion design, music or photography: a concrete example is the exhibition Synergies, where Franchina's unique style is connected to photography, realizing an extraordinary rendering of Dario D'India pictures.
It has to be no surprise that Franchina's works have so much in common with commercials and advertising techniques. The artist himself shows quite a various professional background: from the degree in System Integrations and Operations Management to the advertising experience, from Beverly Hills to Palermo, every step of his life pattern enriched his own perception of art and turned out to be an interesting integration to his style. It's quite amazing how Franchina's technique, featured by the use of unusual materials such as acrylics and shaping pastes, strengthen the pop side of his style: the deďŹ ned outlines of the characters recall the comics world, while the tendency to the use of aggressive tones may be linked to Roy Lichtenstein and the Pop Art movement. The introduction of very recognizable items emphasizes the commercial feature, as we can clearly see in The Beauty of Nature.
In this work of art the artist displays one of the most worn-out cliché in art history: the female nude. We are all quite used to it. That's why our look – which like it or not is affected by our culture – immediately notices the incompleteness of the figures, and the almost tridimensional appearance of the flowers in the lowest part of the painting. We are fascinated by its extraordinariness, then our eye is caught by a detail as meaningless as the women heels and we find ourselves asking: “is that a Louboutin?”. There's nothing obvious, nothing granted in Franchina's art. Treated with a certain irony, sometimes even with a polemic nuance, the icons of our contemporarity pierce the screen, forcing us to face the inconsistency of our desires. His not-so-childish point of view can be quite prickly, derisive, but it certainly keeps a certain objectivity. That's how Milan, in the artwork Milan All In, becomes an amazing carousel of brands and towers, gently drawn near some symbols of its past like the Dome. It's the very soul of the city, balanced between past and future, caught in the unstoppable flow of history.
Carlotta Biffi
Progetto grafico | Andrea Massucco
MAD GALLERY MILANO – Corso San Gottardo 18 | Milano Curators Alessandra Magni, Carlo Greco
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