RESUME
2000-2008
> First steps in the artistic field thanks to graffiti and, more generally, to street art
2008-2012
> Academic career - Art Direction & Graphic Design - Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (NABA) - Milan
2010-2012
> Filrouge project; public art / temporary installations
2012 Autumn
> ArteLago (group exhibition), Origlio (CH)
2012 Winter
> Arte Urbana Lugano (personal exhibition), Lugano (CH)
2013 Winter
> L'Arte della Memoria (group exhibition), Gentilino (CH)
2015 Spring
> Re-creation (public mural art), Taverne (CH)
2015-2021
> Experimentation on - landscapes painting - various artistic project/urban interventions
2021 Spring
> Freaky Funk Flow (public mural art), Lugano (CH)
2022 Spring
> Le Stanze dell'Arte (group exhibition), Chiasso-Lugano-Bellinzona (CH)
2024 Summer
> SOTTO/SOPRA Arte Urbana: dalla strada al museo, andata e ritorno (group exhibition), Santa Maria della Scala - Siena (I)
2024 / 9 August - 1 November
> Vis-à-Vis - Forma e paesaggio (group exhibition), Ospedale Regionale La Carità - Locarno (CH)
2024 / 7 September - 17 November
> Street Art (R)Evolution (group exhibition), Ehime Prefectural Museum of Art - Matsuyama (JPN)
2024 / 5 August - 31 December
> LOVE & VISIONS (personal exhibition), Banca Raiffeisen Basso Ceresio - Melano, Riva San Vitale, Bissone (CH)
2025 / 22 January - 23 March
> Street Art (R)Evolution (group exhibition), Shibuya Stream hall, Shibuya - Tokyo (JPN)
He began to approach art at the age of 14 with his first tags.
From the age of 15 to 20 he always had fun with colors and, more precisely from 17 onwards, making graffiti, experimenting different styles and names, between lettering and puppets.
Soon after he experimented with various street art techniques, using different media such as stickers, posters, stencils, collages, installations, recycled materials and so on.
During those years - more precisely between 2008 and 2012 - he expanded his skillset by studying art direction and graphic design at the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan. During this path he was able to discover more about the world of digital graphics and advertising, a path that allowed him to grow technically and made him understand the profound fascination he feels for classical techniques, which he prefers over digital media.
Together with a friend with whom he did graffiti, aware of the reality of Lugano (an unsuitable place and not inclined to accept unauthorized urban artistic interventions), he started another urban art project, which allowed them to create unauthorized works of considerable size, without however running into legal consequences. The project was called “Filrouge – Temporary Lines”. The only material used: a red wool thread.
Below is the link to the project, which is interesting both from a visual and written content point of view:
Filrouge (Lugano (CH), 2010-2012)
In the same period, in addition to the Filrouge project, he has always experimented individually with street art interventions, in particular through the "Unintentional Brainstorming" project - LINK - CLICK HERE - a series of works used as stickers throughout the city and thanks to which he had the opportunity to organize a personal exhibition, called "smile.", in collaboration with Arte Urbana Lugano and the City of Lugano. The exhibition included works related to the "Unitentional Brainstorming" project and other works created for the occasion, which are part of the "Ready-made" collection - LINK - CLICK HERE - a series of works that oscillates between nonsense and social criticism.
Link:
Arte Urbana Lugano (Lugano (CH), 2010-2012)
“sorridi. “
issuu.com/luganoeventi/docs/catalogo_au
(pagina 25 + pagina 47)
damianomengozzi.com/unintentionalbrainstorming
n that period, being very active with artistic interventions in the center of Lugano, the editorial staff of L'Universo - the student newspaper of USI (*University of Italian Switzerland) - asked for an interview which now remains as a memory of a very carefree and full of hope.
Link:
Interview for L’Universo (Lugano (CH), 2012)
He then continued to paint both in the studio and in the context of urban art, both authorized and unauthorized. This allowed him to participate in a beautiful mural art event in 2013 in Gentilino, where several artists were present. The theme of the event was "The Art of Memory". He decided to paint a mystical elephant and had the luck and intuition to set up the entire surrounding space, also creating another site-specific work, using fragments of mirror and building material found on site.
Here some links about the event:
Arte della memoria
(Villa Ambrosetti, Gentilino (CH), 2013)
“Timeless”
www.facebook.com/RSIcultplus/videos/larte-della-memoria-villa-ambrosetti/1058889957487198/
(minuto 3:25 - 4:43)
labrouge.wordpress.com/2013/10/28/lam-larte-della-memoria-a-lugano-in-una-villa-abbandonata/
1995-2015.undo.net/it/mostra/167389
In 2015 he collaborated with another municipality, designing and realizing the revaluation of the external walls of the Traversee kindergarten in Taverne, a very colorful project that had a fantastic response from the very young.
Links:
Revaluation of Kindergarten Traversee in Taverne
“re-creation” (Taverne (CH), 2015)
Between 2015 and 2021 he focused more on studio work, painting on canvas with acrylics and creating a collection of Ticino and Swiss landscapes.
In recent years, after having experimented in the context of urban art, he felt the need to better discover the secrets of painting, focusing in particular on the importance of the use of colours, lights and shadows. Following visits to art museums during his adolescence, he wanted to understand how it was possible to draw natural elements, glimpses and views. He therefore invested years and whole nights with acrylics, canvases and brushes, improving technically and, above all, opening the horizons of the imagination.
Link:
During 2020 and 2021 he felt the need to paint "other" and thus began a short period of experimentation, always on canvas with acrylic colors. The subjects are no longer landscapes but situations extrapolated mainly from dreams and desires. A short but fundamental period to achieve what he currently does. This period allowed him to combine the technique acquired over the years with the freedom of the imagination, assembling partly dreamlike, partly symbolic elements.
In 2021 he collaborated again with Arte Urbana Lugano, the Viganello Youth Center and the City of Lugano, to carry out an artistic revaluation of the centre's exteriors. A challenging project, carried out with the support of the children who attend the structure and some managers. A site-specific work that has allowed a municipal building to regain the visibility it deserves and, at the same time, to capture the attention and interest of younger people.
Links:
Arte Urbana Lugano (Viganello (CH), 2021)
“Freaky Funk Flow”
www.arteurbana.ch/project/freaky-funk-flow
www.tio.ch/ticino/attualita/1520007/viganello-lugano-centro-opera-tratta
During the lockdown period, following the rediscovery of some old sketches and after years of using acrylics rather than sprays, he began to recombine the techniques again.
He currently paints on medium/large format canvases using mainly acrylic colours, spray paint and oil pastels. His style draws from different contexts and different influences but the main ones undoubtedly come from the world of urban art, naive art and the desire to communicate daily emotions in a free and spontaneous way. His subjects do not have specific worlds of reference, sometimes they are not well-defined figures, other times they turn out to be puppets, still others they are patterns or inanimate objects.
In 2022 he was selected for Le Stanze dell'Arte (Young Artists Award - Genesi Creativa) promoted by the Chiasso Cultural Center in collaboration with Rotary. A beautiful opportunity that allowed the first canvas from the series of works called "Love & Visions" to be exhibited to the public.
The work chosen for the occasion was "Be Yourself". It was exhibited together with the others at the Spazio Officina in Chiasso, at the Kromya Art Gallery in Lugano and at the Sala Patriziale in Bellinzona.
Below are some interesting articles:
Le Stanze dell’Arte (Chiasso, Lugano, Bellinzona, (CH) 2022)
“Be Yourself”
www.laregione.ch/culture/arte/1572805/club-artisti-rotary-lugano-bellinzona-arte-stanze
www.osservatore.ch/le-stanze-dellarte-gli-artisti-selezionati-dai-rotary-club-del-ticino_62125.html
He currently works regularly in his studio in Davesco (Lugano, CH) where he paints mainly on canvas.
"The paintings I currently create on canvas derive from the desire to explore through art the subjective relationship between the individual and spirituality, where nature acts as a connecting link and is the main gateway to other mystical and contemplative realities. Art allows me to escape from daily thoughts and the problems that life brings. My works are not just shapes and colors but represent a romantic eulogy to the decadence of modern society and, at the same time, they are an escape route... a breach of hope into a simpler world."
Love & Visions:
"SOTTO/SOPRA Arte Urbana: dalla strada al museo, andata e ritorno"
During the summer of 2024, more precisely at the beginning of July, thanks to the collaboration and support of Artrust SA (www.artrust.ch) he worked at Santa Maria della Scala in Siena (Italy) where he created a site-specific work entitled Astra Lumina Nos.
LOVE & VISIONS
“The works exhibited at the Raiffeisen branches are part of the recent “Love & Visions” series,” says artist Damiano Mengozzi. “This collection, which began during 2022 and is still ongoing, stems from the need to set myself no limits, both in terms of the subjects represented and the concepts conveyed. The paintings in this series range mainly between figurative and architectural elements, inanimate objects, still lifes, glimpses of landscapes and patterns. The common thread in these works, in some more explicit and in others more veiled, is always the subjective relationship there is between the individual and spirituality, where nature acts as a link and turns out to be at the same time the main gateway to mystical and contemplative realities.“
https://www.artrust.ch/mengozzi-raiffeisen/?lang=en
"Vis-à-Vis 2D - Forma e paesaggio
During the summer of 2024, thanks to the collaboration with Visarte (www.visarte.ch) and the curator Riccardo Lisi he exhibited in a group show at the La Carità Regional Hospital in Locarno. On this occasion Damiano opted for a first public exhibition of some works belonging to the most recent collection entitled "Swiss Beauties - Water and Peaks".
