luigi vanzan biography

Luigi Vanzan was born in Padova, Italy. At the age of thirteen he moved to England.

In 1975 he attended a foundation course in art and design at the Sir John Cass School of Art and in 1976 was accepted at the Central School of Art and Design where he studied fine art painting under the tutelage of John Plumb. He graduated in 1979 and then worked on a community arts project painting murals for the London Hospital. He also taught life drawing for a short period at the Sir John Cass School of Art.
In 1981 he joined the artist community in Bussana Vecchia Italy where he opened a gallery selling his own work. Returned to England and continued to work producing mainly drawings and prints.

1992-94 studied Visual Theory at East London University under the tutelage of Mike O'Pray and gained an MA with distinction. The thesis submitted was later lost by the library and only a part of the unedited thesis survives and is available on this site and addresses meaning in painting.

1994-6 worked for David Bratby on a series of murals for Southwark Council at the Elephant and Castle subway system.

In 1993 he joined the Internal Audit department at the Law Society in England and Wales.
In 2012 he retired from the Law Society and became a studio holder and member of the Lewisham Arthouse where he run a portait painting workshop. He is also a member of the Hesketh Hubbard life drawing society for whom he has lead summer life drawing workshops at the Mall Galleries.

He has exhibited in London and Italy in group exhibitions and competitions cluding the Royal Academy Summer Show, Whitechapel Gallery, Royal Festival Hall, Guildhall Gallery. He opens his studio each year as part of the Lewisham Arthouse Open Studios event that takes place in autumn.
My main stimulus comes from what I see, feel and experience. I always carry a sketchbook so I am constantly drawing. Sometimes the drawings are left in the sketchbook and some of the drawings are brought together into compositions using a geometrical framework that are used as the basis for prints (lino cuts) and paintings. My current work centres around drawing from life, landscape, and public spaces such as dance halls and pubs. I use drawing to study of people around me and how they relate to me, to each other, and their environment Main area of interest is the human figure and the human condition. I am interested in social and dynamic situations where cultures, friends, and strangers meet. The aim is to re-present reality with the means at my disposal and convey with immediacy the power and pleasure of what is before me. Drawing in particular allows me to engage in an intimate relationship with the subject, it is a means to get a grip on reality, to connect with the other, to feed, to keep going, to move forward, to protect oneself against the cold, empty darkness. I also have an interest in art theory, in particular how meaning is ascribed to paintings and its relationship to the intention of the artist.
Influences Important influences on my work are David Graham, Sickert, Lou Reed, Richard Wollheim, metaphysics, Ingres, Sabicas, Peter Saunders, Arthur C Danto, Umberto Eco, Rothko, Kimon Nicolaides, my fixed wheel bike, Morandi, charcoal, music, Rembrandt, geometry, Wittgenstein, ambient music, Botticelli, fountain pens, Vermeer, Utamaro, George Orwell, Italian Neorealism.