Piriongo on ARTEMPERATURE Zurigo
Interview
YOUR NAME INTRIGUES US A LOT, WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
In the 90’s, using some social media of the time, I met some Brazilian artists who, by mispronouncing my name in Portuguese Piergiorgio, made this more rounded PIRIONGO come out, which fits very well with the characters of my artworks. From then on I used it as a signature.
YOUR LOGO HAS A LITTLE CROWN, COULD YOU SHARE WHAT IT REPRESENTS?
Basquiat impressed me so much, after a few years after his death I started to study his works and to document him, from there I embarked on the concept used by Julian Schnabel in the film BASQUIAT, where he indicates with an initial scene of the film the crowning of the little boy as if it were the gift of creativity. Associated with my name I reinforce the desire to create.
YOUR WORKS ARE CLEARLY REMINISCENT OF POP ART, WHICH HAS BECOME VERY CURRENT AGAIN AND NOW CALLED NEOPOPOP HAS ARTISTS LIKE MONOPOLY AMONG ITS RANKS. WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT POPART, HOW DID IT BECOME YOUR FORM OF EXPRESSION?
Well, pop-art is nothing but the use of images and famous subjects already to the public of non-experts, who can appreciate the art already knowing its colors and meaning. In my life I have always worked as a graphic designer in the world of publicity and clothing so what art form could impress me more than the POP-Art, already 20 years ago I created my character Fallen Angel, the little black man with wings and with a thousand questions and countless perplexities about what revolves around him, I felt that something was missing to be appreciated in something more popular, so here comes the union of elementary graphic advertising, the most sought after images of art and phrases revisited in my own way. … an assemblage that gives a final result that like the first virtue of a painting is to be a feast for the eye, I like it when people tell me that my paintings can be read and everyone can make their own logical analysis of the piece, the fact is that whoever looks at my painting feels it is his according to the interests of his own life.
WE NOTICE IN YOUR WORKS MORE LEVELS OF NARRATIVE: COMICS, CULTURE, CARTOON, BRAND LOGO, ART… HOW DO YOU LINK THESE LEVELS OF READING OF YOUR WORKS? WHAT IS THE MAIN THEME OF YOUR WORKS?
The ideas of my paintings are born from my artistic flashbacks, everything I have assimilated in the past years I propose on my canvases, the obsession for bright colors, the use of spray brings me closer to the street culture I lived as a child, the use of words sometimes cut fills the empty spaces that for me are cosmic funnels, those empty moments in discussions when between a topic and another there is that pause of silence and you never know what to say.
Brands for me are what make the global economy go round in this period, everything is branded, the brand gives a different value to objects that have the same functionality as many others, people are captured by the ideology of the brand, so very often I transform it, I change its identity and the jagged shapes explain how sometimes you are tied to something that even changing it has the same meaning … is the concept of the phrase, time passes but remains the same.
More than one artist there would be many artists that I follow with a lot of interest, one of them, the one I would like to know in person and have a dialogue with is Johnny Romeo, an Australian artist who synthesizes the scenes represented with extreme simplicity and with a stunning visual impact.
WHICH IS YOUR OWN FAVORITE WORK AND WHY?
Without any doubt it is not just one work but the subject I often use to represent, and it is FRIDA Kahlo, the Mexican artist who after suffering a bad accident at only 18 years old managed to overcome everything and emerge as an artist, now is also an icon known by many people, Frida was a painter with a troubled life, in the midst of the Mexican revolution from 1900 onwards must not have been easy for her to establish herself. Now we’re in a world where if you’re not very social it’s like you’re out of the world…so you have to be a bit revolutionary even now.
THREE THINGS YOU HATE
Hypocrisy, not be grateful for the work done, diseases.
THREE THINGS YOU LOVE
Animals, tranquility, simple people.