October 17-November 9, 2024

Opening: Thursday, October 17, 6 p.m.

Matteo Guarnaccia, Santi e Briganti – Immagini e pensieri da una coscienza ispirata dall’amore

Antonio Colombo is pleased to present in his gallery in Via Solferino, the exhibition Saints and Brigands – Images and thoughts from a consciousness inspired by love..

The Magic Bus, the gallery’s project room, will display the last major project conceived by artist Matteo Guarnaccia before his untimely death. It is a series featuring more than 100 original portraits with which he celebrates figures who, throughout history, have shaken the foundations of conventional thinking.

The portraits are a tribute to musicians, philosophers, poets, artists, gurus and outsiders who revolutionized their era. David Bowie, Vivienne Westwood, Hypatia, St. Francis, Bob Dylan, and Buddha are just a few of the iconic figures captured by Guarnaccia with his unmistakable stroke, charged with symbolic meaning and emotional depth. Each portrait is a visual exploration that captures the essence of these rebellious figures, celebrating their ability to challenge the status quo and their revolutionary influence in shaping new ways of thinking.

Matteo Guarnaccia, a leading figure in European visionary counterculture and a keen observer of the world, has always sought to capture the complexity and beauty of human diversity and the universe. Through his drawings, paintings and writings, he testified to his deep empathy and awareness, conveying through his art messages of love, kindness and intellectual rigor

On the occasion of the exhibition opening, the volume Saints and Brigands. Gentle portraits of artists, revolutionaries and gurus. , published by ShaKe Edizioni, which collects the more than one hundred portraits in the exhibition, accompanied by quotations and reflections on the protagonists, tracing a path that traces not only the lives of these emblematic figures, but also the extraordinary artistic journey of Matteo Guarnaccia. With 256 illustrated pages and 108 large-format plates, the volume is an important testimony to the legacy left by Guarnaccia to contemporary culture. A work that goes beyond a simple collection of portraits, offering a narrative that interweaves art, philosophy and history, and paying homage to the artist’s eternal curiosity and revolutionary spirit.

“… For me, creativity, is a biological duty. I’m a great curiosity seeker, and for decades I’ve been, and still am, concerned with bringing my curiosities to fruition through painting, drawings, collages, writing and actions … I’ve drawn, sketched … written everything that has crossed my mind.
Art is light and nourishment…Love is the highest form of awareness…”
Matteo Guarnaccia

Matteo Guarnaccia (Milan 1954-2022) an artist and costume historian, was a leading figure in contemporary visionary culture. Already in the 1970s he was a leading figure in the European countercultural scene, with his psychedelic magazine, “Insekten Sekte.” Active in the field of art, with international exhibitions and installations: from the Milan Triennale to the Hall of Flowers in San Francisco, from the Venice Biennale to the Pecci Museum in Prato, from the Mazzotta and Mudima Foundation in Milan to the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation in Turin. He has exhibited his works in Italy, Holland, the United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, Switzerland, etc. His works appear in major international magazines and catalogs, including Zoom (France), Underground Culture from all Parts of the World (Japan): he is one of the few Italian artists featured in Grushkin & King’s prestigious Art of Modern Rock in 2004. He has been involved in fashion with various projects, collaborating with Vivienne Westwood (for whom he designed a Capsule Collection), Biba (London), Corso Como 10, Malo, Stephan Marais (Paris). In the field of design he has worked alongside Bruno Munari, Atelier Mendini, Italo Rota & Partners, Alessandro Guerriero, Piero Fornasetti. He has written and designed more than sixty “essays” dedicated to the avant-garde and subcultures of the twentieth century, published by various publishers, including Rizzoli, Phaidon, Hoepli, Mondadori, 24 ORE Cultura, as well as collaborating with various newspapers. With ShaKe he published Rebels with Style (2009), Psychedelic (2010), Italian Underground (2011), Guernica Blues. Controstoria delle arti dal 1945 a oggi (2012), Shamans (2016), All You Need is Love (2017), as well as beautifully illustrating Terence McKenna’s classic travelogue, True Hallucinations (new ed. 2022).