Dario Ballantini

Ballantini shows his creativity since his early apprenticeship in Tuscany, and grinds it down during his feverish nights' work on canvases, summoning all the shades of the avant-garde's (Cubo-Futurism, the Metaphysical Movement, Surrealism and wild Expressionism, above all).
He attacks with acrylics or pastels his paintings and adds a modern twist to the era of obsession and desolation by taking inspiration from Sironi's suburban leaden factories, contrasting with the arrogance of a face's haunted expression, lit up by the vulgar underling of a smile or the sneer of a mask. He dismembers a body in the sprawl of houses that spills onto the stage, as if driven by some geological disaster, some movement of the earth that transforms objects and thoughts, under the pull of a metamorphic drift of ever-changing images and ideas.
The busy splintering of the human figures and objects recalls the Futurist tradition with its Cubist influence; certain perspective out of Sironi and De Chirico suggests a metaphysical atmosphere of unease; and in comparison the transition to Surrealism is decreed by the amalgamation of certain compositions in which thoughts, nightmares and dreams materialize and encounter elements reality.

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Dario Ballantini was born in Livorno in 1964. He had his first meetings with paintings and theater, within the walls of his own house. With his father who was a painter in the neo realist style, his uncle a post Macchiaioli artist, his grandfather an actor of an amateur dramatic company, and his uncle a unsuccessful tenor.
And he was struck by the reproductions of Guttuso, and Picasso seen in the volumes of reunited publishers that were distributed by his father. He became very passionate about comic strips (Jacovitti, and Marvel authors), and began trying to realize some of his own. As a teen, he discovered the songs of Luigi Tenco, whose figure became the subject of many portraits, and opened the door to the musical passion of Italian singers/song writers. Among of which that stood out, Guccini and Dalla, who were painted many times in portraits.
After taking a course in hatching, held by professor Giulio Guiggi (1912-1994) He enrolled himself in an experimental secondary school specializing in Art. Where he was a student of Giancarlo Cocchia (1924-1987).
He graduated 1984.
In the mean time, his passion for being on stage, and for the figures of Totò, Petrolini and Alighiero Noschese grew after he watched their live performan...

Dario Ballantini’s Finissage on the 08th of August at the ‘Arps&Co fine arts since 1902’ in Amsterdam.


Dario Ballantini on Show: selection of paintings at The Collection 6/03/2014 to 31/03/2014, The Collection, London, UK