CROSS MY HEART: FRANKO B - review of exhibition at New Art Projects by Lilian Pizzichini for Trebuchet

Review by Lilian Pizzichini for Trebuchet:

"History permeates Franko B’s work. It might look like personal history, but the history and the future he imagines is made of people other than himself. The dead are the material of his work and with the dead come numbers. This is where the ceramics come in. The tiny painted porcelain figures who line the walls of his show are arranged first as a heart then as a cross. He has forgotten no one. [...]"


FRANKO B: I'M HERE - review by Stewart Who

Review by Stewart Who? for Shortwave.

 "When the lights dimmed to darkness and Franko emerged, painted white and naked, it was hard not to shudder in concerned excitement. His bare, ghostly body has been a consistent theme over the years, but for this show, the whitewash served to turn his flesh into canvas for a digital montage. The rotating dais echoed those creepy children’s ballerina boxes, but this was no nursery rhyme and taffeta tutus were thin on the ground. [...]"

Read it here: shortwave.substack.com/p/franko-b-im-here

For more information abut I'm Here, see here.franko-b.com 


FRANKO B - solo exhibition at New Art Projects, London

Thu 04 Nov 2021 - Thu 23 Dec 2021 
New Art Projects, London 

In 2019 Franko B was commissioned to make a major exhibition and installation at Rua Red in Dublin curated by a/political. It is our great pleasure to present two major pieces from the show for a London Audience in 2021 and to include them in this, his first solo show at New Art Projects.

CORPUS DOMINI - group exhibition at Palazzo Reale, Milan


From 27 October 2021 to 30 January 2022, 
Palazzo Reale in Milan will host the exhibition Corpus Domini. 

From the glorified body to the ruins of the soul, 
curated by Francesca Alfano Miglietti. 


The exhibition is sponsored and produced by Palazzo Reale and Comune di Milano-Cultura, in collaboration with Marsilio Arte and Tenderstories. 

111 works - installations, sculptures, drawings, paintings, video installations, and photographs - by 34 internationally recognized artists, some of them true icons of contemporary art, are on display for the first time in Italy to collectively capture the multiplicity of the ways in which the human being is represented. The title refers to the disappearance of the 'real body' in favor of the 'body of the spectacle': from the Glorified Body - the body of awareness, of rebellion, of otherness - to the Contemporary Body – intended on the one hand as the body of our spectacle-based society, and on the other in its most poetic forms of exodus, of work, of the silent multitude. “The boundary between real and imaginary is less and less recognizable, to the point of absorbing reality into a screen, as demonstrated by the obsessive presence of screens in our lives: the flat screens of televisions and computers, video games, smartphones”, writes the curator, who goes on to say, “The screen erases the distance between the viewer and the viewed, invites us to immerse ourselves in it, offers us a reality we can hold in our hand, but on which our hand has no grip”. 

In 1,000 square meters of exhibition space, the installation unfolds as an analysis of the emergence of new forms of representation in the contemporary world, focusing on the historical passage from the living body that was the protagonist of Body Art to the reinvented body of Hyperrealism, on the changing aesthetic canons of representation, and on the powerful evocation of the individual through the traces that s/he leaves behind. A story intended to reflect on the crisis of sensory experience triggered by the advent of a culture that offers perfect bodies, modified bodies, bodies that have been re-conceived and re-produced, and thus essentially fake. 

On display are works by AES+F, Janine Antoni, Yael Bartana, Zharko Basheski, Joseph Beuys, Christian Boltanski, Vlassis Caniaris, Chen Zhen, John De Andrea, Gino de Dominicis, Carole A. Feuerman, Franko B, Robert Gober, Antony Gormley, Duane Hanson, Alfredo Jaar, Kimsooja, Joseph Kosuth, Charles LeDray, Robert Longo, Urs Lüthi, Ibrahim Mahama, Fabio Mauri, Oscar Muñoz, Gina Pane, Marc Quinn, Carol Rama, Michal Rovner, Andres Serrano, Chiharu Shiota, Marc Sijan, Dayanita Singh, Sun Yuan e Peng Yu, Gavin Turk.

I'M HERE - New performance by Franko B - Premiere in Newcastle


Pioneering performance artist Franko B presents the UK tour of his new work I’m Here, commencing July 2021. Using innovative body mapping techniques, in collabora- tion with Anthony Martin from a/political, Franko B revisits his seminal bloodletting works for the first time in the artist's practice. Each cut challenging the audience to confront their own history, a global history of war, abandonment, homo- phobia, freedom, displacement, famine and sex.

More information: here.franko-b.com

The first Performance will be presented by Globe Gallery, Newcastle, in Collaboration with The Department of Media, Culture, Heritage at Newcastle University on 2nd July 2021 





THINGS THAT MAKE ME CRY - Exhibition in Newcastle

 

Franko B:  Things that Make me Cry 

Globe Gallery, Newcastle

12th June - 3rd July 2021
 
“Things that Make me Cry” showcases Franko B’s ‘Lost Boys’ - a series of individually hand-crafted, ceramic figures and sculptures both fragile and powerful in their significance and symbolism. 

The exhibition draws from Franko B’s childhood in Milan and experiences he encountered when he was taken into care. This early stage of his life left such an imprint on Franko that it has become an integral part of his identity and a prevalent theme within his work






Skopje Pride Weekend 2021: The Queer commons: Politics of Friendship, Love and Affects




Franko B will be taking part with an exhibition, video screenings and lecture


June 2nd - 9th 2021

Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje







STILL LIFE 2: Edition of Giclee prints now available, Special Launch Price


SPECIAL LAUNCH PRICE: 25% off until 30th April 2021
Available from FrankoBStudio.etsy.com

The original Still Life was a photographic project produced by Franko B between 2001 and 2003 (and published as a book by Black Dog Publishing in 2003). The images focus on scenes of homelessness in London. 

In 2017, Franko resumed the series, producing a new set of images, Still Life 2.

Twelve of these new images have now been produced as Giclee prints, which are available to buy individually or as four triptychs. Each print is A3 size (29.7x42cm) and is an edition of 100 (signed and numbered on reverse).

2 New Tote Bags now available

These bags are 100% cotton and printed on both sides, with 2 different designs by Franko B: 'Kiss' and 'The Revolution is Fake'.

Available to buy now from FrankoBStudio.etsy.com