Vile Viale

Viale’s monuments to the absurd

David's arms covered in Russian tattoos, and The Big Bang in the form of a Popcorn kernel, expertly carved Styrofoam marble. Magic.

Fabio Viale’s sculptural work makes a very special kind of a statement. A typical example of the Italian artist’s subdued irrevence is how he has manipulated the quiet magnificence of Michelangelo’s ‘David’ into a disquieting statement of manhood – he takes what is famously under-represented, and magnifies it to absurd proportions.

He perfectly emulates the essence of the renaissance and ancient Greek Kouros only to bastardise his hard work with preposterously crude Russian tattoos. Thus, Vile Viale delivers antiquity to the twenty-first century through the dark, distorted lens of Gulag folklore.

Even if this all sounds a bit controversial it is not at all tasteless. The black and white nature of his art and the classic material he has chosen adds an element of nobility to a body of work that is at its core far from noble.