Maurizio Anzeri
Maurizio Anzeri
Maurizio Anzeri was born in Loano Italy, 1969 and current
lives and works in London. He is an artist who creates portraits from sewing
into old, vintage photographs he has found. Anzeri’s work has been exhibited
alongside the work of Alexander McQueen as part of the Savage Beauty exhibit at
the V&A Museum, London. His solo
exhibitions include ‘Darwins Tears’, Luce Gallery (Italy) 2010, ‘Many’, Haines
Gallery Voltany (New York) 2016 and ‘Profiles’, Public Commission (China) 2017.
He
uses his interpretation of embroidery to form extravagant garments for the
subject that not only convey a sense of the person’s thoughts and personality,
but also demonstrate a focal point within the art, such as an eye. Anzeri
commonly uses shimmery threads to make his sharp geometric patterns which
juxtaposes the atmospheric, vintage look of the photographs. His artwork gives
the impression of a combined past and future through his mixture media which
also creates a three dimensional effect on the paper. Anzeri explains how he
works “with sewing, embroidery and drawing to explore the essence of signs in
their physical manifestation. [He takes] inspiration from [his] own personal
experience and observation of how, in other cultures, bodies themselves are
treated as living graphic symbols.”
This image is called ‘Round Midnight’ and was created by
Maurizio Anzeri in 2009. This piece is 62 x 45cm and is embroidery on print.
The image behind his sewing is an early 20th Century ‘glamour shot’
which during this period would have been considered sexual and interesting for
both the girl’s nudity and ethnicity. The embroidery over the image is of a
veil which covers the subjects face and bust. It allows the girl to have some
kind of modesty and innocence and is said to “overlay a past generation’s
cross-cultural anxieties with an allusion to our own”.