ARTIST BIO:
Born in Palermo (Italy), “Tvboy” is the pseudonym of the young artist Salvatore Benintende.
He grew up in Milan, where he broke into the art world via graffiti since 1996. After studing painting and illustration at the University of Bilbao (Spain), he returned to Milan and graduated in Industrial design, specializing in graphic art. He began collaborating with various European studios and brands as freelancer; has put together shows in several galleries and been involved in street events in Italy and Spain. He currently lives in Barcelona where he runs his own studio. His visual style is inherit from Pop art and comic strips, with breezily expressive graphics and his own imaginative reworking of past icons. The baby with the face inside the Tv set, his alter-ego and hallmark, carries the message: “Switch it off,you’re the one on stage!”
TV BOY.
by Jacopo Perfetti
TvBoy is the son of post-modernism and of the cross-media mash-up. His works are a Bakhtinian carnivalization of the contemporary world, where styles, citations and influences pour onto his canvases like fragments of street pop with a neo-punk aftertaste. Starting with the streets as his own channel of expression, Salvatore Benintende, alias TvBoy, has made his art an ongoing experimentation with the idioms of communication, with mass media serving at the same time as the inspiration and the negation of his research. “Switch off the tv, you’re the one on stage”. With this message, simple and universally understandable, the artist has given life to his creative alter ego, a child observing with genuine sensitivity a present broken into an impure flux of mixed-up styles. All of these elements can be found in the works of Salvatore, whether they are on the street or in the studio. Looking at his canvases is like looking at Peter Greenaway’s “A Zed and Two Noughts” or Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” through the fragmented filter of cyber-navigation. His art is a meta-narration of the contemporary, composed of reminders from a past revived in a game for two, where the spectator is invited to take part in the dialogue of Art. TvBoy has reinterpreted all his heroes, from Roy Lichtenstein to Milton Glaser, from Salvador Dalì to Andy Warhol, in a constant customization of his own history. In his canvases, the spirit of rock – the grunge of Guns and Roses and Nirvana – moves through the fetishes of pop iconography in an ironical assemblage in the style of Adrian Tranquilli. As the postmodern artist mixes anthropological symbols and religious archetypes into comic book superheroes and iconography, TvBoy uses the same irony in reflecting on figures characterizing his era, alluding to an uncertainty typical of this century, where “everything is possible and nothing is true”. The essence of his art lies precisely in the sensibility with which he observes the reality surrounding him. This genuine and almost adolescent sensibility, leads him to be astonished by the Other who becomes, in his canvases, the dialectical instrument of his art. To the irony of postmodernism and to the capacity of mixing styles and instruments typical of the media mash up, the artist adds all the expressive energy of street art, a movement he adopted at the very beginning. On the street, Salvatore wears the clothes of TvBoy, a personality lost midway between the tenderness of the child and the explosiveness of the illustrarocker, who leaves his mark traveling from the streets of Milan, where it is easy to see his works, often flanked by those of other street artists, to the periphery of Barcelona, which the artist has chosen as his creative atelier. Thus his art becomes public art, which everyone can enjoy, and it surprises and provokes, narrates and astonishes. Thanks to his uniqueness, he manages to stand up against the anti-graffito terrorism dominating Milan in this period, when, without making any distinctions, the wall surfaces of the city were being restored to the same colour gray as the city atmosphere. The best way to get acquainted with the art of TvBoy is to walk through the streets of the cities which have welcomed him, cities to which the artist has donated corners of color, from the graffito made with the street poet Ivan in Via Cassala, in Milan, to the landslide of stickers TvBoy has used to customize cities all over Europe. Salvatore generates his art both in galleries and on the street, imagining dream worlds and engendering visions as he slides, with exquisite balance, between art and design, illustration and communication, inviting all to take part in his revolution without weapons. Come out and play!
SELECTED ART EXHIBITIONS:
SOLO SHOWS:
2008- VERY CONTEMPORARY - Progr space, Bern Switzerland - NEXT 6TH-24tTH SEPT.
2008- CULTURE CLASH - We love Asbaek Gallery Copenaghen Denmark - NEXT 29th AUG. -29TH SEPT.
2008- LOVE WILL TEAR US APART - Galleria Spazioinmostra Milano, Italy curated by Jacopo Perfetti
2007- DRA-WINGS - Limited Gallery Milano, Italy curated by Jacopo Perfetti
2007- PLEASE DON'T DIE - Iguapop Gallery Barcelona, Spain curated by Inigo Martinez Molller
2006- LA DOLCE VITA - distritoQuinto - Barcelona, Spain curated by Cris D.
2006- STREET LOVE - Travelling gallery - Milano, Italy curated by M. G. Torri
2006- NO STREET - Niu Gallery - Barcelona, Spain curated by Sergi Bueno
2005- ANIMAURBANA - Libreria Hoepli - Milano, Italy self curated
COLLECTIVE SHOWS:
2008- NIT CASM - CENTRE D'ART SANTA MONICA - Barcelona Spain curated by Aimar Arriola - NEXT
2008- LA STRADA: DAL CONCETTO FELLINIANO A QUELLO METROPOLITANO - My Gallery Milano - curated by Alessandro Veneziani
2008- SCALA MERCALLI - Auditorium Roma - curated by Gianluca Marziani - NEXT
2008- KUNSTART - International modern and contemporary Art Fair of Bolzano - Stand Galleria Spazioinmostra curated by Ivan Quaroni
2008- CITY SLANG - Dorothy Circus Gallery Roma, Italy curated by Micol di Veroli & Alexandra Mazzanti
2008- LOOKde EXPO - Miscelanea Barcelona, Spain curated by Look De Book
2007- XMART - Post Design Gallery Milano, Italy curated by Jacopo Perfetti
2007- OPERE D'ARTE MODERNA & CONTEMPORANEA - Asta 42 - Milano, Italy curated by Porro & C.
2007- LA NUOVA FIGURAZIONE ITALIANA - Fabbrica Borroni - Milano, Italy curated by Chiara Canali
2007- ART VERONA - Stand Byblos Art Gallery Verona, Italy curated by Byblos Art Gallery
2007-THE SUMMER POP UP SHOW - Byblos Art Gallery Verona, Italy curated by Alessandro Riva & Art Kitchen
2007- ILLA D'ART - L'Illa Diagonal Barcelona, Spain curated by Galeria Safia
2007- TAG Galleria Spazio in Mostra - Milano, Italy curated by Chiara Canali
2007- STREET ART SWEET ART - PAC Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea Milano, Italy curated by Alessandro Riva with AK
2007- SNOWBOARD ART - I.E.D. Barcelona 2007, Spain Curated by IED
2007- HENKEL - Auditorio Macba 2007, Spain curated by Apple Tree
2007- 24X24 DESIGN NON STOP - Idep Barcelona, Spain curated by Idep
2006- BAC! 06 - C.C.C.B. Centre de Cultura Contemporània - Barcelona, Spain
curated by Gigi R. Harringon & Juan Jose Fernandez
2006- FORUM DE L'INNOVACIO' - Palacios de Congresos de Lleida-Reus-Girona-Barcelonacurated by Apple Tree
2006- ROJO®SMART - KBB Gallery - Barcelona, Spain / Invaliden1 Gallery - Berlin, Germany (C) curated by Rojo
2006- PREMIO ITALIAN FACTORY PER LA PITTURA ITALIANA - Casa del Pane - Milano, Italy curated by Italian Factory
2006- SEGUNDOASALTO - Centro de Historia - Zaragoza, Spain curated by Undo Studio
2006- MONZTAAAH! - Centro de Historia - Zaragoza, Spain curated by Pablo Iglesias Algora
2006- URBANFUNKE - Jardin de les tres Ximines - Barcelona, Spain curated by Urbanfunke
2006- SOTTOTERRA - StudioGiga - Roma, Italy curated by Matteo Peretti
2006- SUSHI FOR BEGINNERS - Abitart Hotel - Roma, Italy curated by Micol di Veroli
2006- URBANDESIGN - viveHOME! - Milano, Italy curated by Jacopo Perfetti
2006- NOBATEGA! - Farm4 - Barcelona, Spain
2006- ART IN MOTION - distritoQuinto - Barcelona, Spain curated by Pearson Longboards
2006- DIGITAL HELMETS - Nuova Fiera Campionaria - Milano, Italy curated by Graphola
2005- HYPEGALLERY - Assab 1 - Milano, Italy
2005- MIRACOLO A MILANO- Palazzo della Ragione - Milano, Italy curated by Alessandro Riva
2005- URBAN EDGE SHOW (Performance) - The P4 - Milano, Italy
2005- POSTER EXPLOSION Leonkavallo - Milano, Italy
2006- I GIOCHI Ansaldo - Milano, Italy curated by Pao & Xpò
2004- BOLLOCKS Adamson Gallery Washington U.S.A curated by Kelly Towles
