Tommaso Fattovich was born and raised in Milano in 1977. Fattovich lives in Boca Raton, Florida and works at his studio in Lake Worth, Florida. He describes his early life growing up in Milan, Italy, as his first education in the arts. Self-taught as a painter, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and a Master of Science in International Business from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. The vast art landscape created by a burgeoning Wynwood Art District in Miami became the backdrop to Fattovich’s first fine art exhibitions beginning in 2010. Since when do you paint and what are your favourite motives?
I have been painting for the past 13 years – I would say my favorites motives are the legacy of gestural Abstract Expressionism which is evident in my large-scale, raw canvases as well as nods to Primitivism and Arte Povera which are always visible in my scrappy, graffiti-like drawings.
When you create a new work, how to you proceed?
There's always a point in the process of making a painting in which you become attached. You know the painting isn't cooked, but you develop a sort of affection for it that makes it difficult to move forward. This is when you need to work up a bit of courage: you have to destroy what may be a decent painting to get to the promised land. I still work on the floor in the early stages of a painting. I find that in working flat, it's easier to get lost in it. I don't get bogged down in composition. It feels a bit more free. The idea is to get the work to speak for itself—to have a life of its own. I can accept a painting that I have made as 'mine', but I don't want to see myself in it. In the end, it's not about me. My paintings tend to unfold over long periods; when I go to work on a painting, I may be responding to a mark that I made six weeks or months ago.Where do you get your motivation?
I keep a lot of source material around the studio—books, old magazines, comics. So I might grab something from there to get the ball rolling, or just pick up a pencil and go. Music is essential in my process as well – it fuels my motivation to create.Your life without art would be…
... unfulfilled
What is the best art place in your city at the moment?
The best art place in Miami right now is BlinkGroup Gallery.Learn more about the artist: