About Naomi Vona
Bio
Naomi Vona (Desio 1982), is an Italian artist.
The artist defines herself as an "archival parasite, with no bad intentions".
Her works combine different interests like photography, collages and illustration. Her research is focused on altering vintage and contemporary found images, creating a new interpretation of the original shots.
Using pens, paper, washi tape and stickers she gives every image a new life.
Every work is basically composed of three elements: her life background, her inspirations and subconscious, that is also the glue that puts all together.
Naomi has a degree in Design and Photography from Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, Italy. Her passion for illustration and photography drove her to experiment with collage since she was a student, developing a personal recognisable style. In 2013 she started to play over vintage photos, paintings, doodling and attaching stickers over them. The final result gave her an amazing feeling, so she realised that this was the best way to express herself to the world.
Floating Dreamers
Floating Dreamers is a series about my constant research on pattern and colour combinations. The title of this body of works is also connected to my fascination for the past, and the necessity to keep it "suspended" in time and space.
Mongolfiere
Mongolfiere (Hot-Air Balloons) is a sketchbook filled with altered vintage portraits ready to fly. I wanted to imagine the extension of each photo as an imaginary abstract world. Each subject represents a floaty and colourful balloon that walks freely into time and space.
Gentlewomen & Gentlemen Series
I like to imagine that these fellas are aliens from the future landed on Earth to teach the good manners to the human species.
Gli Strappi Sui Muri
"Gli Strappi Sui Muri" (Tears On The Walls), is a brand new series about a personal research on memories and "history layers". I wanted to imagine a wall where our memories (the photo) get slowly covered by time, represented by paper stripes and paint interventions. Every time we look at a picture it changes in time and space, revealing us a new layer. While we grow up, we connect with our memories in a different level, and time erodes them slowly.
Saluti Dal Futuro
"Saluti Da Futuro" (Greetings From The Future) explores the infinite possibilities of visual space-time portals and my evergreen passion to travel in time. I realised a series of 200 pieces on vintage postcards that represent several places all around the world. My handmade alterations over these pictures are not just portals, but also abstract coded messages to send over to imaginary addressees.
This series came to life thanks to three distinct but connected events happened in my personal life. The title of the series refers to the bitter sweet news received after I spent a week home from work because of a laryngitis. The second fact is connected to the medium, an unsold fashion magazine that I took from work and brought home. The topic of its contents were about the celebration of Mickey Mouse. The third fact brought an epiphany into my mind - watching a man begging for money in Soho dressed as Mickey Mouse. After a few months of owning an unwanted magazine, I knew that it was time to create something with it. I also wanted to represent all the feelings incapsulated into these life events: frustration, forgetfulness and oddness.
Selling Lies Project
"Selling Lies" is a visual project born in 2017, when I wanted to participate to the Instagram challenge "100 days project".
The idea was to transform entirely a fashion magazine into a visual diary, creating a bridge of communication between the meaningless ads and my personal point of view about the fashion industry. The final result is a personal, fun and controversial art project. This project is now an art class called "From Fashion Ad To Protest", where I encourage my students to create their own art journal using a fashion magazine. During the event I also teach my layered technique, giving advices and tips on how to manipulate existing images.
Collaborations
- mt Masking Tape - Workshops around London (2017-ongoing)
- Historic Royal Palaces - Workshop series for the events "Bright Nights" inside the Kensington Palace.
- UNFPA - World Of State Population report 2021 called “My Body Is My Own”
- QUERCUS - Creation of a portrait for one of the stories included in the book Women On top Of The World by Lucy-Anne Holmes
- Wellcome Collection - Creation of a series of portraits for the story “How To Belong” by Tanya Perdikou
- Doordash - Series of portraits for their campaign “Made by Women"
- Spectrum News - Portrait for the article "The First Dutch Boy With Autism and The Who Cared For Him"
- Stanley - Naomi Vona's IceFlow Jug Collage
- Daisie - Workshop "Mixed Media - My Favourite Materials"
- Hobby Craft - Schneider Abstract Art Workshop Online Events
- Freshpatch - Creation of an artwork and "the making of" video
- Edding - Workshops series during the London Stationery Show 2022
- Cult Pens - Online workshop "Bring New Life To Old Photos With mt Tape"
- Flow Magazine - Publication on the Book For Paper Lovers 10
Press
- Ignant - Humorous collages By Naomi Vona
- Frankie - Artist Interview Naomi Vona
- The Jealous Curator - Naomi Vona
- Society6 - Piecing Together the Past with Italian Collage Artist Naomi Vona
- The Jealous Curator Podcast - A Fearless Act
- Design Boom - Hacking a Fashion Magazine to Protest: a Visual Diary by Naomi Vona
- Posca France - Les étranges portraits de Naomi Vona
- Saatchi Art - London: Naomi Vona Workshop Series
- Toutiao - Interview With Italian Artist Naomi Vona