10 Questions with Francesca Falli

Francesca Falli began painting as a child, under the guidance of her maternal grandfather, and since then the arts have been the center of her professional activity. She studied Decorative Painting at the Art Institute of L'Aquila, Graphics at the European Institute of Design in Rome, and Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts. Her works are exhibited in several museums of Contemporary Art. She received prizes and awards in Italy and abroad; moreover, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Chamber of Deputies in Rome.

She exhibited her "Pollage" series in the great Galleries section of the main Italian Contemporary Art exhibitions, next to works by Warhol, Festa, Angeli, and Schifano, and in concomitance with the exhibition of National Pavillion of Guatemala (16th Architecture Biennale in Venice). She is historicized inside the Catalogue of Mondadori Modern Art and in de Agostini's Atlas of Art. She is a member of the Interdisciplinary Centre of Contemporary Landscape.

@francesca.falli

ARTIST STATEMENT

Her works are inspired by Pop Art painters with revisions, experimentations, provocations. Her ability to experiment led her to create an innovative way of 'artistic work', where painting and decoration are contaminated by the opportunities of the new digital technique.
Continuous research leads her to the production of the "Pollage" series, arousing the interest of critics and historians and spreading among collectors. The chaotic, distorted and emphasized landscapes that we find in her exemplary works are the expression of the mental and visual chaos caused by the earthquake that occurred in her city in 2009.

During these last months, her production has been enriched by a new theme: artistic ignorance. Everybody paints, everybody feels like an artist, everyone wants to express himself through pictorial art. Still, many do not know or study the history of art. Here we find some references, some mockeries towards the false artists, and from these ones, the provocative idea of her works (inspired in their titles and compositions by the great names of art history) was born.

Kaos, Mixed media on mirror, 100x100 cm, 2017 © Francesca Falli

INTERVIEW

First of all, introduce yourself to our readers. Who you are and how did you start experimenting with images?

Hello, I am an Italian artist, I have always worked with art and advertising graphics. I love to create, think, provoke; I am curious, spiteful, and competitive. Sometimes I can be touchy, and I can also be unpleasant in front of people who cross the line.
Since I was a child, I have dreamed of becoming a professional painter. I realized my dream with great sacrifices: I attended art schools, academies, and universities, I studied a lot, giving up my social life, loves, friendships. I received my first colour palette as a gift from my maternal grandfather when I was eight years old, and I started playing, experimenting. For me, playing with images was art, and art was playing.

How would you define yourself as an artist? And how did this definition change over the years?

I define myself as an eclectic, curious, ironic, joyful and playful artist. My artistic expressiveness is translated through different languages: graphics, painting, collage, digital art. Over the years, this way of being and thinking has never changed. In my life, however, there have been events that have changed the way I work. For example, the earthquake that destroyed my hometown, L'Aquila, also destroyed my artistic laboratory. As a result, I began to express myself by experimenting with different techniques in continuous evolution: I abandoned traditional brushes and painting techniques to experiment with new artistic expressions.

Brainy Chicken, Mixed media on mirror, 62x62 cm, 2019 © Francesca Falli

You have a long career, you have exhibited internationally and alongside some of the greatest contemporary artists. What is your most treasured memory as an artist so far?

Joy, satisfaction, and enthusiasm are strong emotions that every artist experiences. However, some emotions give you goosebumps – or rather chicken skin.
When my Chickens receive prizes, I feel rewarded for all the hard work and sleep lost to create my "Pollarte". I have won many awards, each of them has given me a different emotion. But I experienced the greatest emotions with participation in major exhibitions – when I saw my works exhibited alongside the works of my beloved Andy Warhol, for me, it was not an arrival but a new departure.

Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? What is your artistic routine when working?

I have always worked in parallel with graphics and art. My works are first conceived on paper and then processed on the computer. Ideas arise spontaneously in the most disparate moments, even during sleep: sometimes I get out of bed and work even at 4 in the morning. While in creative thinking, which increases the pleasure of working, I am not available: sometimes the intuition comes from my intimate self – suddenly and freely – revealing something that I didn't even know I had in mind; sometimes instead, I go in search of creative incitement in the works of my favourite artists.

What do you see as the strengths of your art, visually or conceptually?

The strengths in my art are the coherence, the idea, the visual communication, and the recognizability of my works. Whoever observes my works can recognize my artistic work without having to read the name, without reading the signature. The association between the Chicken element and my work of art is immediate.

How do you differentiate yours from the rest? In other words, what do you feel makes your work unique and truly your own?

There is a strong link between my creative "madness" – from which intertwined elements are born – and the visual composition in my works. This way of thinking and working resides within me, in my soul, and in my brain. Some artists tried to copy my artistic collage, but they gave up. It was too difficult and complicated for them to enter my mind: this mental process, this madness is mine alone, and it lives within me. The association between the Chicken element and my work of art is also immediate.

Chi è Pollok?, Mixed media on mirror, 97x97 cm, 2017 © Francesca Falli

My Love, Digital print on white plastic, 50x70 cm, 2018 © Francesca Falli

What's one essential element in your art?

The most important element in my works of art is the figure of the Chicken. The Chicken, in general, is an animal that makes you laugh, and it has many meanings. It is a polysemous term. It is symbolic and metaphorical. It is provocative because it is connected to the most disparate contexts and compositions: from those that are typically pop to the sacred ones that are then desecrated. I love to play with words that recall the term Chicken, both in the compositions of the works and in the choice of their titles. Through a sort of psychic automatism, I like to be inspired by the great names in the history of art.
From this mental process comes the idea of the titles for my works, such as "Pollo-Polli -Gallo", "Van Coc", "Chi è Pollok", "Poll _Gauguin", "Pollo della Francesca", "Cha-Gall", "Pollaiolo". All my chickens are "spiced" with Pop Art. My "Pollarte" brand is now recognizable.

Do you find that the shift to digital exhibitions and art fairs has helped you promote your work?

With the lockdown during the pandemic and the closure of museums and galleries, the art sector has also had to reinvent itself. The pandemic has forced the art world to move online. This, in my opinion, has changed and diversified the clientele of collectors and how artists work. Even if I don't define myself as social, I participated in cultural events, openings, and online debates with gallery owners during the pandemic period. By participating, I made my artistic work known, and I was lucky; in addition, I made friends with exhibition curators who appreciated my works, and now we – my Chickens and I – collaborate with them.

The lockdown during the pandemic changed all categories of the art world: museums, galleries, auction houses, artists, and digital has become the tool for interacting with the public. In my opinion, exhibitions created with computer languages play an important strategic action: they reach a wide audience, but those exhibitions cannot replace the experience of the real event. The advantages of online exhibitions are that they are available over time: they are not limited to the duration of the real event, they can be visited for free by users from all over the world, and they can be realized with small budgets. However, for me, the work of art observed virtually does not carry the intense emotion that the real work can communicate. For this, a new space should be imagined – a new space that considers the advantages of virtual and physical spaces by combining them into a single experience.

What do you think about the art community and market?

In this period, in my opinion, there is great uncertainty in the art market. I realized that the way of working with art has changed, as well as for sales. We work a lot with virtual platforms: unusual and new collaborations are born. Galleries are studying new strategies, starting with digitization, and the artistic community is adapting. Today we work with virtual exhibitions, online viewing rooms, and specific e-commerce sections. This allows visibility all over the world, but, in my opinion, for a collector seeing a work of art in person during an exhibition is an experience that is difficult to replace.

Finally, any projects or exhibitions you are looking forward to for this year?

I look forward to the exhibition organized by my American gallery owner and postponed due to the pandemic. Artexpo New York will finally open in October, and I will participate with my Chickens.

Related Interviews