ONO arte contemporanea is pleased to present I wanna be Vanna – le icone femminili di Vanna Vinci (Vanna Vinci’s iconic women). In this solo solo exhibition by the illustrator and comic bookwriter Vanna Vinci the lives of Frida Kahlo, Tamara de Lempicka and Marquise Luisa Casati, three of the iconic women narrated and drawn by Vinci, enter into dialogue with photography. For years Vinci has been alternating her famous and irreverent Bambina Filosofica (Philosophical Girl)  to attentive re-readings of female artists, women first of all, that have changed the history of the 20th century. From La Casati. La Musa Egoista (Rizzoli 2013) to Tamara de Lempicka. Icona dell’art déco (Il Sole 24 Ore 2015) up to the recent Frida Kahlo. Operetta amorale a fumetti (Il Sole 24 Ore 2016), last season’s publishing case, Vinci deals with the theme of women identity through the biographical tool, highlighting the deeper aspects of the lives of women artists who were loved but at the same time often only partially known by the public, returning thus the woman behind the artist and the icon.

Through preparatory drawings and original tables the exhibition also illustrates Vinci’s creative path, one made of  intertestual identifications and overlappings, and of a references-riddled language. In this way we span through  Venetian feasts full of exotic animals’ feathers, to the even more eccentric and chemically hallucinatory Parisian and Newyorkese parties of Tamara, to Frida’s bedroom, where it the ghsts of the mind that lead the dances.
The underlying common traits shared between the three artists are geography – between Italy, France and Mexico – a free relationship with sexuality and a much more complex one with depression and personal demons. More generally, the ability to make one’s life an art (Casati’s way of being a muse and a patron, in fact, anticipates much of a certain kind of performative art).
Vinci’s works are displayed next to the photographs from ONO’s archives depicting Frida Kahlo (Lucienne Bloch), Tamara de Lempicka (Dora Kallmus) and Marquese Casati (Adolph de Meyer and Mariano Fortuny, courtesy of Ryersson and Yaccarino/The Casati Archives) to complete an exhibition path aimed to tell the story of three real contemporary icons.

Vanna Vinci, author and illustrator, began her career on the pages of the historic comic magazine “Nova Express”. Since then her stories and her graphic novels have been published by the best Italian and foreign publishers. Among her most famous characters the Philosophical Girl, whose latest adventures were published by BAO Publishing in  the volume entitled No Future. She won the Yellow Kid Prize for best comics author in 1999, Lucca Comics & Games’ Gran Guinigi Prize in 2005  and the Boscarato Award as best author in 2015. The exhibition (September 29 – December 9, 2017) is made up of 30 original tables and drawings, 15 serigraphs by Vinci  and 12 photographs.
Free admission. With the patronage of the City of Bologna.

 Tra i suoi personaggi più famosi “la bambina filosofica”, di cui è uscito per BAO Publishing l’ultimo volume dal titolo No Future. Nel 1999 ha vinto lo Yellow Kid, come miglior disegnatore di fumetti, nel 2005 il premio Gran Guinigi di Lucca Comics & Games e, nel 2015, il premio Boscarato come miglior autore. La mostra (29 settembre – 9 dicembre 2017) è composta da 30 tavole e disegni preparatori originali, 15 serigrafie della vinci e 12 fotografie. Ingresso libero. Con il patrocinio del Comune di Bologna.

All photos of Marchesa Casati are courtesy of Ryersson and Yaccarino/The Casati Archives.
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