| Born in Milan, Italy, in 1960. Lives and works in London "My work focuses on the visceral, where the body is a canvas and an unmediated site for representation of the sacred, the beautiful, the untouchable, the unspeakable and for the pain, the love, the hate, the loss, the power and the fears of the human condition." Franko B Franko B in the press: "For the 500 spectators, it was perhaps the quality of the silence that was most affecting about Franko B’s I Miss You in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. Organised as the closing event in Live Culture, a four-day season about all things to do with live art and performance, I Miss You – which sold out after just a few days – was also very much its crowning moment. For fifteen minutes, a naked, bleeding Franko B walked up and down a 40-metre canvas catwalk. (...) No one fainted, but a lot of people cried." Art Review, May 2003 "For his show Aktion 398, Franko B arranged to meet his audience in a terrifyingly intimate series of one-to-one encounters. (…) Everybody’s two minutes was different, but common to nearly all the post-performance reports was a feeling that the spectator, not the artist, was the one under scrutiny. Franko B had created a situation that denuded people, stripping us of all points of reference and denying us the safe rules of etiquette. This was no sensationalised art-gimmick or gory bloodletting conceived to shock; nor was it a pitiable self-injurious cry for help. Despite his unnerving countenance, Franko B was modest, rational and polite. (…) He tried to comfort those who were frightened, listened and responded to people. After just a few seconds with the artists, what really mattered was the intensity of the connection and communication between us." The Guardian, 25 May 2002 |
| Franko B - Selected Group Exhibitions | |
2012 |
In the light of the overhead , Postbox Gallery, London (England) |
| Il fuoco della Natura/ The Flash of Nature, Salone degli Incanti -Ex Pescheria, Trieste (Italy) | |
| Io sono, LipanjePuntin artecontemporanea, Trieste (Italy) | |
2011 |
Arte Fiera, Galleria Pack, Bologna (Italy) |
2009 |
Second Skin, Galleria Antonino Paraggi, Treviso (Italy) |
| Dark Rooms, Daneyal Mahmood Gallery, New York (USA) | |
| Arte Fiera, LipanjePuntin artecontemporanea, Bologna (Italy) | |
2008 |
Screen Music 2, Fortezza da Basso, Firenze (Italy) |
| Gothic, Fieldgate Gallery, London (UK) | |
2007 |
Arte Fiera, Galleria Pack, Bologna (Italy) |
| From the Vault, Galleria Pack, Milano (Italy) | |
| The Trip-Pop Game, LipanjePuntin artecontemporanea, Trieste (Italy) | |
| Paranoia, Freud Museum, London (United Kingdom) | |
| Il velo, Il filatoio, Caraglio (Italy) | |
| Arte e omosessualità, Palazzina Reale, Firenze (Italy) | |
| My land. Second edition, many places, San Miniato (Italy) | |
| 13x17 , Berengo studio, Venezia (Italy) | |
2006 |
MiArt, LipanjePuntin artecontemporanea, Milano (Italy) |
| Paranoia, Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds (United Kingdom) | |
| Arte Fiera, LipanjePuntin artecontemporanea, Pack, Bologna (Italy) | |
| Fresco bosco, Certosa di San Lorenzo, Padula, Salerno (Italy) | |
| Paranoia, Focal Point Gallery, Southend (United Kingdom) | |
2005 |
Arte Fiera, LipanjePuntin artecontemporanea, Pack, Bologna (Italy) |
| Corpo|moda|mente, curated by Gruppo 78, LipanjePuntin artecontemporanea, Trieste (Italy) | |
2004 |
Art, Lies and Videotape, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool (United Kingdom) |
| Flesh For Fantasy, Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena (Italy) | |
2003 |
Urban Network, Courtauld Institute of Art, London (United Kingdom) |
| Independence, South London Gallery, London (United Kingdom) | |
| Open 2003, arts & cinema, Venezia Lido, Venezia (Italy) | |
2001 |
The Antwerp Open, Antwerp (Belgium) |
| I Feel Lonely Please call Me..., The Great Eastern Hotel, London (United Kingdom) | |
1999 |
Rosso vivo, PAC, Milano (Italy) |
| Franko B - Selected Solo Exhibitions | |
2012 |
Because of love (performance), Institute for the Contemporary Arts, Lancaster (England) |
| Because the love (performance), Festival di la Terre, Verona (Italy) | |
| Because of love (performance), Colchester arts center, Colchester (England) | |
2011 |
I still Love, The Nunnery Gallery, London (UK) |
2010 |
Franko B / Jack Mooney, Monument Mall, Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) |
| I still Love, PAC - Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milano (Italy) | |
| I'm thinking of you (performance), Colchester Arts Centre, Colchester, Essex (UK) | |
| Waiting for... cardiaco (with Basilé and Galliani), Superstudio Più, Milano (Italy) | |
| I'm thinking of you (performance), Trouble Festival, Les Halles, Brussels (Belgium) | |
| Black + Blood, Galleria Pack, Milano (Italy) | |
| I'm thinking of you (performance), Royal College of Art, London (UK) | |
| I'm thinking of you (performance), The Nunnery Gallery, London (UK) | |
2009 |
Don't leave me this way (performance), Incubate Festival, Tilburg (The Netherlands) |
| I'm thinking of you (performance), Block 33, Thessaloniki (Greece) | |
| Love in Times of Pain, Globe City Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne (UK) | |
| I'm thinking of you (performance), Chelsea Theatre, London (UK) | |
2008 |
Don't leave me this way (performance), The bluecoat, Liverpool (UK) |
| Don't leave me this way (performance), Colchester Arts Centre, Colchester (UK) | |
| I'm thinking of you, Changing Role Gallery, Napoli (Italy) | |
| The Golden Age, LipanjePuntin artecontemporanea, Roma (Italy) | |
| Franko B / Zhang Huan: Posizione e Deposizione, Galleria Pack, Milano (Italy) | |
| Don't leave me this way (performance), ICA, London (UK) | |
| Don't leave me this way (performance), SITE Gallery, Sheffield (UK) | |
| Don't leave me this way (performance), Global Gallery, Newcastle (UK) | |
| Don't leave me this way (performance), Galerija Kapelica, Ljubljana (Slovenia) | |
2007 |
Don't leave me this way (performance), Arnolfini, Bristol (UK) |
| Full of Love, Marena Rooms Gallery, Torino (Italy) | |
| In Times of Fear, RuArts Foundation, Moscow (Russia) | |
| The artist's body, then and now, Centre d'Art Contemporain Geneve, Geneve (CH) | |
2006 |
Don't Leave Me This Way, Teatro dei Contrari, Roma (Italy) |
| The Black Period, Galleria Pack, Milano (Italy) | |
2005 |
Long Live Romance, LipanjePuntin artecontemporanea, Trieste (Italy) |
2004 |
Volume due: Franko B, Galleria Pack, Milano (Italy) |
| Still Life (performance), South London Gallery, London (United Kingdom) | |
2003 |
Poverty Is Not A Crime (collages), Neon Gallery, London (United Kingdom) |
| Still Life (performance), Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry (United Kingdom) | |
| E-FEST (large scale installation), Great Eastern Hotel, London (United Kingdom) | |
| This Is For You (selected works 1997-2003), Luke & A Gallery, London (United Kingdom) | |
2002 |
I Miss You! (performance), Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid (Spain) |
| Aktion 398 part of Fierce (performance), Warwick Artys Centre, Coventry (United Kingdom) | |
| I Miss You! part of Break 21 (performance), Galerija Kapelica, Lublijana (Slovenia) | |
| I Miss You! (performance), Cenpi, Beograd (Serbia) | |
| Aktion 398 (performance), Casa de America, Madrid (Spain) | |
2001 |
Now You Know Me, Klaus Engelhorn 20, Vienna (Austria) |
| Oh Lover Boy: The Exhibition, Home, London (United Kingdom) | |
2000 |
Franko B (paintings), The Centre of Attention, London (United Kingdom) |
| Oh Lover Boy (collages), Chamber of Pop Culture, London (United Kingdom) | |
1999 |
I Miss You!, Toynbee Studios, London (United Kingdom) |