Matteo Favi is an artist whose work profoundly impacts viewers through its intensity and expressive force. Every brushstroke, every color combination, every figure emerges from a deep-seated need to transform pain into imagery. His artistic language is vibrant, sincere, at times desperate, and precisely because of this, incredibly authentic.
We had the opportunity to delve into his artistic vision, seeking to understand the role that art plays in his life.
Art as Liberation
For Favi, painting is far more than a simple means of expression—it is a cathartic act, an essential necessity for freeing himself from the weight of accumulated painful experiences. “Painting for me is a cathartic act,” he states without hesitation. There was no single triggering event that led him to art; rather, it was a sequence of experiences that, layering over time, found their only possible outlet through painting.
His work is deeply autobiographical, where personal experiences transform into color, form, and texture. However, his art does not merely recount a personal story; it becomes a universal mirror of profound human emotions in which the viewer can recognize themselves.
Color as an Instinctive Call
If Favi’s pictorial narrative is driven by emotional urgency, his use of color follows an entirely spontaneous logic, free from predefined schemes. There is no rational planning behind his color choices—each hue seems to “call” another, in a spontaneous process reflecting the artist’s inner flow. This instinctive approach gives his works a unique vibrancy, where chance becomes an essential element of creation.
The Artist’s Inner Struggle
For Favi, every creation is an act of liberation, but also an inner battle. While painting allows him to express his emotional world, it also forces him into constant confrontation with his own insecurities. “I am always hypercritical of myself,” he admits. The creative act thus becomes an ongoing tension between the desire to communicate and the fear of not doing so effectively.
A Deep Connection with Expressionism
From both a stylistic and conceptual perspective, Favi identifies strongly with Expressionism. His encounter with Edvard Munch’s *The Scream* during his adolescence was a turning point in his artistic vision. “For the first time, I felt I was no longer alone,” he recalls. In that artwork—so distressing yet powerful—he found a form of art capable of expressing pain, solitude, and the sense of incomprehension that accompanied him.
Like the works of the Expressionists, Favi’s paintings are imbued with a thread of suffering and introspection. His canvases do not merely depict reality; they distort, amplify, and charge it with emotional tension, transforming it into a visual scream.
Conclusion
Matteo Favi’s art is an intense journey through the depths of the soul—an exploration of pain and solitude that, rather than closing in on itself, reaches out to the viewer with visceral force. Each piece is a silent cry, a fragment of life transformed into color and texture. And it is precisely in this ability to touch deep emotional chords that the strength of his art resides—an art that is not just to be observed but felt, in the truest sense of the word.
