ATILLA SCHWANZ (IT)
Attila Schwanz is an Italian painter, comic artist, illustrator and designer. He creates artworks strongly influenced by fantasy and horror elements that explore the social objectification and fetishization of the body.
His artworks span over a multitude of subjects and show the artist’s mastery of a variety of techniques, among which the ballpoint pen remains his favourite. Attila Schwanz’s works are connected by the artist’s fascination with the body and contemporary society’s obsession with physical appearance.
Such obsession is expressed through the figure of the monster, a favoured depiction by the artist because of its dramatic potential and ability to express transformation. The central theme of the corporeal is thus filtered and distorted by horror and fantastic elements that altogether move a powerful social critique through the creation of dark and complex artworks.
Attila Schwanz
Some artworks draw on classical narratives such as the Grim brothers’ tales, as well as biblical stories and artworks by Goya and Caravaggio. However, Attila Schwanz reinterprets such narratives from a contemporary perspective by focusing on the body.
Another recurrent source of inspiration for him is the role of technology and social media in creating distorted representations of the body. Through his metamorphic dark figures, he highlights how on such platforms people create and present a spectacular obsession of the self. Such reflections come from his experience as a high school teacher and his observation of the negative influence that social media have on his pupils. His artworks raise a certain discomfort in the viewer due to the recurrent explicit sexual references and the representation of grim bodies. This is wisely channelled by the artist to educate the audience as he disguises a social critique of body-shaming within his fantastic artworks. Attila Schwanz creates new millennia fables whose strength, as in classical stories, come from their layered moral.
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Rotten Skin
