Franko B
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Franko B (born 1960) is an internationally acclaimed London-based performance artist who uses his own body in his art.
Life and work
Franko B was born in Milan, Italy. He has lived in London since 1979. He studied at Camberwell College of Arts in south London (1986–7) and Chelsea College of Art (1987–90). He has been resident in London since 1990.
He works in a wide variety of media including video, photography, performance art, painting, installation, sculpture, music and mixed media
His work focuses on the visceral. Like Ron Athey, Kira O'Reilly and Lennie Lee, Franko uses his own blood as a medium. He makes his body into a canvas in an attempt to portray "the pain, the love, the hate, the loss, the power and the fears of the human condition".
He performed at Tate Modern in 1999, the ICA, London in 1996, the South London Gallery in 1999 and 2004, the Centre of Attention in 2000 and the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham in 2005. He has exhibited work internationally in Zagreb, Mexico City, Milan, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Copenhagen, Madrid, the prestigious Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena in 2002 and the Copenhagen Contemporary Art Centre in 2003 as well as in Vienna, Tate Liverpool, the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium and the Crawford municipal gallery in Cork, Ireland.
Franko B has lectured at a number of well-known art schools including St. Martins School of Art, New York University and the Courtauld Institute of Art. He has been the subject of two monographs, 'Franko B' (Black Dog Publishing 1998) and 'Oh Lover Boy' (2001) and has published a photographic project entitled 'Still Life' (2003). He has been the subject of numerous books, articles, reviews and television programmes.
