Mudec photo. Tvboy's solo exhibition recounts the artistic journey of one of the most successful contemporary street artists
Mudec photo. Tvboy's solo exhibition recounts the artistic journey of one of the most successful contemporary street artists
Milan, November 30 2021 – Mudec photo hosts for the first time in Milan a solo show by Tvboy, born Salvatore Benintende, who reveals to the visitor the ironic and satirical eye, but always attentive to reflection, with which the artist reinterprets the various trends of contemporary society.
"Tvboy. The exhibition" tells - through more than 70 canvases - the journey of Tvboy, who is internationally one of the main exponents of the Neo-pop street art movement and is one of the most recognizable artists of his generation. His works are in fact exhibited in various countries, from the street to museum exhibitions, at PAC Milan, MDM museum as well as in numerous galleries in Rome, Barcelona, Munich, Copenhagen, Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Miami, alone or alongside of big names like Warhol, Lichtenstein, Haring, Basquiat.
The exhibition, produced by 24 Ore Cultura – Gruppo 24 Ore and promoted by the Municipality of Milan – Cultura, is curated by Nicolas Ballario, journalist expert in contemporary art, and is created in collaboration with Studio Tvboy. Entrance is free.
The meeting between Mudec and the artist was - as often happens in these cases with "disruptive" artists towards society and institutions - absolutely casual. On the occasion of the Mudec exhibition dedicated to Banksy in 2018 "A visual protest. The art of Banksy" (21 November 2018 – 14 April 2019), Tvboy created a first protest mural at night on the surrounding wall of the museum, in via Tortona 56 The mural represents (it is still visible today) a hooded street artist, portrayed from behind, who plays on the official/un-official ambiguity, referring to the unofficial Banksy exhibition that took place inside the museum rooms.
From the "clash" an interesting dialogue was born, which saw the Museum of Cultures and Tvboy working together for a very ambitious project within the Tortona district. In fact, far from burying or dropping the artist's provocation, the Municipality of Milan and Mudec seized the spontaneous opportunity by inviting Tvboy to replicate the work during a public performance in the museum, creating a series of works that were subsequently sold, the proceeds of which financed the project "A wall that unites", in collaboration with Municipio 6, for the construction of two open-air galleries dedicated to Guido Crepax and subsequently to Diabolik near the church of San Cristoforo.
"The exhibition we are inaugurating today was born following the collaboration between the artist and the institutions – declared the Councilor for Culture Tommaso Sacchi – and will allow a wider audience to discover how street art is a public phenomenon and, at the same time, an artistic work that is based on political and social reflection linked to our contemporaneity. The Mudec presents itself once again as an observatory of contemporary artistic languages, ready to intercept those cultural phenomena which, like street art, emerge more forcefully on the Milanese and global stage".
There are four great themes addressed in Tvboy's art: kisses, art, power, heroes, and in the exhibition they translate into thematic itineraries.
The first nucleus is dedicated to kisses, which have made Tvboy famous throughout the world and which represent for the artist the most intimate and romantic gesture, but also the "dialogue" par excellence, obviously in the ironic sense that characterizes his works. We continue with the nucleus dedicated to power, with the absolutely "iconic" and static vision that characterizes the powerful represented by Tvboy. The third section represents perhaps the most significant in Tvboy's production, the one dedicated to the history of art. The journey ends with the section dedicated to the artist's personal heroes.
But the sections and categories do not suit Tvboy, as Nicolas Ballario explains in the exhibition. Tvboy "perfectly embodies our contemporaneity, because it breaks down the boundaries between disciplines and pushes us towards abandoning a sterile vision of the world in categories, both for the techniques or tools it uses, and for the contents it addresses, speaking to us about racism , discrimination, environment, climate, cinema, sport, religion, violence, sex, death, immigration, love, friendship, power, heroes, art. Its strength – continues Ballario – is the continuous, exaggerated, ravenous production. Tvboy aspires to become an image encyclopedia of contemporary society".
In the exhibition, therefore, the path is a non-path, a story told to visitors also through the eyes and pen of the photographer Oliviero Toscani - one of Tvboy's points of reference - who interprets the street artist's vision on the theme of power, by Beppe Sala, his great admirer who comments on the theme linked to love and kisses, and by the Captain of Open Arms Marc Reig Creus, with whom Tvboy has created an important project and who comments on the theme of heroes.
Updated: 30/11/2021