Monday 21 October 2013

Italian Street Artist Agostino Iacurci Paints a New Mural in Rome

Agostino Iacurci working on his giant new mural on the side of a building on the corner of Via Aquilonia and Via Teano in Rome. Photograph by Andreas Romagnoli



Italian artist Agostino Iacurci worked on a colossal new mural in Rome as part of Wunderkammern Gallery’s Public and Confidential project, write Andreas Romagnoli and Jeanne-Marie Cilento. He is photographed while painting from a cherry-picker to reach the upper echelons of his giant figures.

DARK stormy skies hover above us when we meet Iacurci working on his new mural in the eastern part of Rome in Prenestino. While the artist still looks like a teenager under his hard-hat, he first started graffiti painting in 1998 when he was twelve years old. 

Born in Foggia in southern Italy in1986, Iacurci has already worked across a diverse range of artistic mediums from murals to illustrating books and painting for gallery exhibitions. His wall murals are even found adding an element of colourful whimsy to Rome’s maximum security prison. 

Iacurci paints figures enlarged to an enormous scale to create his outdoor murals. His storybook characters adapt to the contours of a building’s surface whether it's an apartment building or prison yard. One of the most important influences on the young artist was the work of Italian painter Bruno Munari who also worked with a style that emphasised geometric shapes and bold colour. Iacurci says that another of his main influences is Otto Dix and that he aims to a create a certain serenity and a sense of the future with is massive figures.

Iacurci's work in Rome can be seen in the international context of his projects that now stretch from Moscow to Paris. And his paintings, drawings and etchings have been presented at exhibitions and festivals in Europe, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the United States. Since 2008, the artist has made huge murals in public spaces for Roma Tre University, Fubon Art Foundation in Taipei, the Fine Art Academy of Rome, the University Campus of Besançon in France, the Saba School in Algeria and ~ together with the inmates ~ two massive works on the walls of the maximum security zone of Rebibbia prison.

Today, Iacurci's art and mural paintings are sought-after all over the world. His new piece in Rome of two bowler-hatted men is a monumental addition to the Eternal City and adds irony and colour to the urban landscape. The artist will have a solo exhibition at Wunderkammern Gallery in Rome in early 2014. The show is part of the Public and Confidential series that began earlier this year. It examines how urban art and street artists interact with the public and the city. 

Visit Wunderkammern Gallery for further information on current and upcoming shows and events in Rome: wunderkammern.net

The completed mural at 28 metres tall and 18 metres wide

The artists ascends on a cherry-picker to continue painting his enormous bowler-hattted men. Photograph by Andreas Romagnoli

A view of Iacurci's new work in progress in Rome's Prenestino district. Photograph by Andreas Romagnoli

The young artist comes back down to ground to mix the colours for his new mural. Photograph by Andreas Romagnoli


An amusing mural in Via del Porto Fluviale in Rome ~ the painting cleverly incorporates the building's windows in the design.

Called Siamese,  this mural is in London's Camden and was a collaboration with Urban Outfitters earlier this year.

A mural painted for Le Mur in Paris this year.

An three by two metre art work made for an urban art exhibition in the Circo Massimo in Rome. 


Called Grafts,  this nine by two metre piece was made for the Venice Bienale in Campo Sant´Agnese.  Detail below. 








Murals made with the students of the Saba School in Algeria





Created for Arte Urbana in Lugano at Via Lavizzari, 5

Created during the LGZ festival and curated by Street Kit in Moscow, Russia

Murals made for Rebibbia prison's On the Wall project. Created in collaboration with a group of 15 inmates on the courtyard's walls, in the maximum security section.

Detail of the Rome prison's mural created by Agostino Iacurci

Mural in Via Lugaro in Turin, Italy

Illustration for the novel "La Finta Nonna" in "Fiabe Italiane" by Italo Calvino. Created for Fiabe dello stivale, International group show

Murals painted for the Univerisity Campus of Besançon in France

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