Franko B (born in Milan in 1960) is an Italian performance artist based in London, where he has lived since 1979. He studied fine art at Camberwell College of Arts (1986–87), Chelsea College of Art (1987–90) and the Byam Shaw School of Art (1990–91). His work was originally based on the bloody and ritualised violation of his own body. Later on he embraced a wide variety of media including video, photography, painting, installation, and sculpture. He performed at the ICA, London in 1996 and 2008, the South London Gallery in 1999 and 2004, the Centre of Attention in 2000, Tate Modern in 2002, the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham in 2005, Arnolfini, Bristol in 2007, The Bluecoat Centre, Liverpool in 2008, CENDEAC, Murcia, Spain in 2007 and The Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, Ireland in 2005. He has exhibited work internationally in Zagreb, Mexico City, Milan, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Copenhagen, Madrid, Vienna, Brussels, Warsaw, Dublin and Siena. From 2009 to 2016 he taught sculpture at the

Accademia di Belle Arti di Macerata The Accademia di Belle Arti di Macerata is an academy of fine arts located in Macerata, Italy. It was founded in 1972. Initially, the Accademia was located in the Palazzo Buonaccorsi. After the Umbria and Marche earthquake of 1997, it was moved ...

in Italy. In 2017 he was appointed Professor of Sculpture at Accademia Albertina in Turin. He has also lectured extensively at a number of art schools, including Saint Martin's School of Art; New York University; the

Ruskin School of Fine Art The Ruskin School of Art, known as the Ruskin, is an art school at the University of Oxford, England. It is part of Oxford's Humanities Division. History The Ruskin grew out the Oxford School of Art, which was founded in 1865 and later became ...

, Oxford; Chelsea College of Art, London; Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee;

DasArts The Amsterdam University of the Arts ( nl, Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten) is a Dutch vocational university of arts located in Amsterdam. The university consists of: * Academy of Architecture * Academy of Theatre and Dance * Breitner Aca ...

, Amsterdam;

Goldsmiths' College of Art Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...

, London; Zurich University of the Arts; and the Courtauld Institute of Art. His work is the subject of four monographs: ''Franko B'' (

Black Dog Publishing Black Dog Publishing was a British publishing company specialising in illustrated non-fiction books on contemporary culture. Topics covered by Black Dog include architecture, art, craft, design, environment, fashion, film, music and photograph ...

, London, 1998), ''Oh Lover Boy'', (Black Dog Publishing, London, 2000), ''Blinded by Love'' (Damiani Editore, Bologna, 2006) and ''I Still Love'' (Motta/

Il Sole 24 Ore ''Il Sole 24 Ore'' () is an Italian national daily business newspaper owned by Confindustria, the Italian employers' federation. History and profile ''Il Sole 24 Ore'' was first published on 9 November 1965 as a merger between ''Il Sole'' ("the ...

, Milan, 2010). An archive of materials related to his work is held as part of the University of Bristol's Theatre Collection. In April 2013, Franko B's work appeared on the cover and insert for the UK Decay album ''

New Hope for the Dead ''New Hope for the Dead'' is the second studio album by English rock band UK Decay. It was released 22 April 2013 by record label Rainbow City. The album was funded via the website PledgeMusic and recorded in Dover with producer Chris Tsangaride ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Franko B British performance artists Alumni of Chelsea College of Arts 1960 births Living people Italian contemporary artists English contemporary artists Body art Alumni of the Byam Shaw School of Art Alumni of Camberwell College of Arts Academic staff of Accademia Albertina

Further reading

References