Silvia Bignami

Artist	Silvia Bignami	Resides	Italy
Website	silviabignami.portfoliobox.net	Medium	Oil Acrylic Oil pastel Heavy Modelling paste
Representing Gallery	Wikiarte Gallery, Bologna, Italy	Email	[email protected]
Follow the Artist	Instagram	Themes	Gender fluidity Identity issues Anxiety Anime Culture Existentialism Political activism Lgbtqia+ representation Gen Z and Gen Alpha issues

About the artist

Silvia Bignami is an up-and-coming artist from Bologna, Italy. She’s a professional journalist and began painting in May 2022. Alongside the studies in Communication and a passion for literature, she attended a one year course at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna (learning theory and practice of drawing human figures from life, with graphite, sanguine, charcoal). In 2023 she was a finalist in the Vienna International Prize for Contemporary Art and exhibited at the Steiner Gallery in Vienna. She had her first solo exhibition in February 2024 at Wikiarte Gallery in Bologna. She will remain as a permanent artist of the Gallery in 2025, participating in Art Fairs in Italy and Europe. She participated in the International Almanara Art Prize 2024 and in the Venice Arte Laguna Prize 2024.

Silvia Bignami works mainly focus on portraits and cover a wide range of media including oil, acrylic, charcoal, often incorporating modelling paste. In her works, she often explores issues related to gender fluidity, sexuality, stereotypes and identity. Sex and gender often become indefinite (mixing up the stereotypes of male and female and representing couples that contain all the possibilities of “gender”). The queer element that is typical of Japanese Anime culture tries to communicate with traditional painting techniques. Through her figurative and intense portraiture, as well as traces of damage, strain, fragmentation, she brings a powerful visual experience to viewers. Silvia Bignami often tries to explore the gap between identity and self representation on social media, the multiplicity of identities and the fragmentation of self. In recent months she explored issues related to life and death in wars and global conflicts such as Ukraine, Israel and Gaza.

The “Motzar” nickname is due to a series of portraits of Wolgang Amadeus Mozart, each of the same size and subject, but painted in different styles. Instead of using a sketchbook, Silvia Bignami uses this identical subject everytime she explores new materials and techniques directly on canvas. This makes the “Motz” series potentially endless.

Artwork Themes & Subject Matter

Silvia Bignami focuses on portrait painting in oil and mixed media. Delving into themes such as gender equality, lgbtqia+ issues, fragmented identities, social stereotypes, social media and human struggles on the eve of the AI revolution.

Press

Silvia Bignami’s paintings have been featured in notable daily national newspapers, magazine and online sources including La Repubblica, Il Corriere della Sera, Quotidiano Nazionale, Exibart, Artsail.