“Simone Bianchi. The art of superheroes”: the monographic exhibition dedicated to the illustrator in Livorno with over 110 works.
A Livorno, in the evocative setting of Granaries of Villa Mimbelli, the exhibition arrives Simone Bianchi. The art of superheroes sponsored by Municipality of Livorno and Livorno Foundation, with the contribution of Chestnut Bank 1910 and the patronage of Lucca Comics & Games: the community event dedicated to Comics, Games, Videogames, Fantasy Fiction, Manga, Anime, Animated Cinema, TV Series and Cosplay. Curated by Giorgio Bacci, it will come inaugurated on Friday 21 July at 18pm and will remain open until 12 November 2023. The exhibition, the largest so far in Tuscany, as well as the longest in terms of duration among those dedicated to Simone Bianchi, was made thanks also to 22 collectors who provided their services.
For over 16 weeks it will be possible to admire the production of the illustrator as a whole. They can be contemplated more than 110 works – of which 20 are unpublished – which retrace the 24s. From the cover of “Wolverine Origins #2009” in 2008, to the internal pages of “Astonishing Edge of Spider – verse #26” world premiere for the Livorno exhibition. There is another small record that goes to this monograph by Simone Bianchi. And the first time that a representative of the ninth art exhibits alongside the great authors of the nineteenth century present inside the Fattori Museum. A partnership with art tout court that Simone has always carried out with extreme enthusiasm and foresight. To crown the experience in the world of Simone Bianchi, one immersive room awaits the visitor along the exhibition route. Created by Art Media Studio - which has in its portfolio internationally prestigious interactive exhibitions ranging from Leonardo to Van Gogh, from Raphael to Klimt - the room allows the artist's images to literally come to life. Simone's universe comes alive and amazes the viewer like in a real movie.
In the contemporary global panorama, Simone Bianchi is certainly among the major interpreters of the most famous superheroes which have marked the collective imagination of entire generations. Superman and Batman, Iron Man and Spider-Man, Thor and Captain America, as well as Wolverine, the X-Men, the Avengers, Sharkey – The Bounty Hunter (in collaboration with Mark Millar, for Netflix), to name just a few , have all passed through Bianchi's fervent inventive vein, first European to be commissioned to execute the Upper Deck Marvel Masterpieces project, object of a double, contemporary exhibition in 2018: at Lucca Comics & Games and in New York, at the Metropolis Gallery. The exhibition presents the visitor with a vast selection of works including paintings, sketches and posters and aims to reconstruct the artist's creative process, starting from the preparatory drawing to arrive at the definitive work, ready for printing. An imaginative journey full of surprises, designed for a wide audience (from children to adults, up to sector enthusiasts). A section of the exhibition is also dedicated to the artist's relationship with the international music scene, to ideally complete a truly unique journey into the creative world of an interpreter of contemporaneity.
Overall, “the exhibition – as highlighted by the curator Giorgio Bacci – thanks to a rich selection of original works, some of which unpublished, created in the 2000s by Simone Bianchi, it offers the visitor at least two extraordinary possibilities. The first is to discover how dreams and myths of contemporary mass media are born and the second, equally important, to appreciate the incredible pictorial and graphic talent of a global artist, capable of giving life to real portraits, qualitatively exceptional, intended to remain in the collective imagination.” “It is with great pleasure, therefore, that the Municipal Administration – underlines the Councilor for Culture Simone Lenzi – hosts this exhibition of strong visual impact in the rooms of the Granaries of Villa Mimbelli. The artist creates a sort of unprecedented pop pantheon where comic book heroes seem to replace divinities and saints, with a truly alienating and fascinating effect."
“Simone Bianchi is a contemporary artist – observes the president of the Livorno Luciano Barsotti Foundation – he does not paint the superheroes of classical mythology but the modern ones of comics, who however have the same saving power and charm as unique and invincible characters. Bianchi is also a protagonist of the globalization of language which from painting and comics extends to video games and social networks, contaminates literature and cinema, and then finds a place of importance in the history of art". Simone Bianchi is enthusiastic and expresses all his radiant satisfaction “I thank the Livorno Foundation, the Municipality of Livorno and the curator Giorgio Bacci for the tenacity with which they desired and pursued this solo show of mine which we have been working on for over a year; tenacity equal to my desire to place the visitor physically in front of the original work. The brushstrokes, the colors, the shadows, in real life, have nothing to do with reproductions of any kind. Long live the Museums!
And finally: "Lucca Comics & Games is honored to be able to include among the exhibitions sponsored by the festival an artist who has been able to reach the heights of international comics but personally I always experience with great enthusiasm the participation in Simone Bianchi's exhibitions - says the director Emanuele Vietina showing all his affection and enthusiasm - Simone is for me above all a friend who I have seen mature artistically, a shining example of someone who dreams and then manages to elevate the Ninth Art. I was able to support him when he took his first steps in the American comic dome, just under 20 years ago. I still remember when he received Grant Morrison's magical script, it was an incredible moment. We both grew up in the same neighborhood, and just a few months earlier we had found ourselves in San Diego when a courier delivered his first DC Comics Art Board. I am overwhelmed by emotions today, here we celebrate the dream of a man from Lucca who made Italy great and gave back to the most iconic houses of American comics, Marvel and DC, an almost Renaissance European touch which ascribes his luminous career among the most decisive in the visual renewal of contemporary mythologies made in the US”.
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