Photo by Franziska Fugger
T here are artists whose work you look at — and artists whose work you enter. Mauro Bergonzoli belongs unmistakably to the latter. His paintings radiate an emotional intensity that feels lived rather than constructed — an energy born of Milan’s visual discipline, the engraving workshop of his childhood, and a decade spent mastering immediacy inside the world of advertising. Today, as he unveils Dolce Vita in Palm Beach, his palette is newly charged. The lines sharpen, the color deepens, the light turns inward. Bergonzoli paints with a form of emotional clarity that collapses joy, memory, sensuality and rigor into a single gesture. This conversation reveals the artist behind the radiance. Origins You were born in Milan, a city saturated with images and design. What did this city imprint on
you before you even knew you would become an artist? I’ve always felt I was born an artist — I began drawing before I could speak. Growing up in central Milan meant being surrounded by beauty, fashion, architecture, and culture; all of it shaped me continuously. The city trained my eye to notice tiny details, the kind most people overlook. Those observations still find their way into my paintings today. Your father ran an engraving workshop. How did that early contact with tools, materials, and precision shape your visual language? Engraving taught me discipline and respect for the line. The materials were expensive — there was no room for error. I learned to work slowly, calmly, with a steady hand. Later, in comics, illustration and advertising, this became a language: I skipped the pencil stage and went straight to ink. The influence
of freehand engraving on silver is especially visible in my Venetian works.
What is the first image — or the first scene — you can look back on now and say: “that’s where it all began”? My family didn’t have money, and gifts were rare. I was born on Christmas Eve, and on my second birth- day my father drew Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse directly on the wall next to my bed. I stared at them for hours, copying every line. That’s where it all began.
The Advertising Decade — A Visual Laboratory
You come from a world where images must be efficient, immediate, calibrated: advertising. What did that school of speed and clarity bring to you as a contemporary artist? It taught me that a single image must speak instantly. One glance — and the message has to
Continued on 27A Vol. 647 YA 21A
Copyrighted© My Living Media. 2026 All Rights reserved. To Advertise Call 561-652-0189
Made with FlippingBook Digital Proposal Creator