Charles V, by Juan Pantoja de la Cruz / Andrea Ravo Mattoni

Artist's Biography

FROM WRITING TO THE ACADEMY
Andrea Mattoni was born in Varese on April 7, 1981, into a family of artists: his father Carlo was a conceptual and behavioral artist, his uncle Alberto an illustrator famous for creating the character Lillibeth, and his grandfather Giovanni Italo, a painter and author of some of the most important series of Liebig and Lavazza stickers.
Andrea has been drawing since his early years, immersed in an extremely stimulating environment. In 1995, he began his journey as a writer under the stage name Ravo. This activity continued until the early 2000s when he enrolled in the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, partially abandoning the use of spray paint to focus on oil and acrylic painting on canvas.

BIOGRAPHY
In 2003, he created and founded THE BAG ARTFACTORY space with a few friends in the Bovisa district of Milan, which became a true hub for artists. Later, he became an assistant to curator Manuela Gandini at the Artandgallery in Milan.
At the same time, he began collaborating as an artist with various art galleries, which led him to deepen his research in painting while continuing his work with spray paint, bringing his years of experimentation on canvas directly to the wall.

THE RECOVERY OF CLASSICISM IN THE CONTEMPORARY
Ravo's growing interest in classical art, a heritage he carries with him from his family tradition and academic studies, led to the creation of a project titled "The Recovery of Classicism in the Contemporary" in 2016. The main goal of this project is unity—uniting the past with the present, and classical art with contemporary art. Methodologically and personally combining techniques learned during academic studies with those developed through the study of spray paint usage.
Each chosen work has a specific connection to the territory in which it is reproduced, thus becoming an opportunity for direct dialogue with the territory. The project can be summarized as follows: reproducing classical art paintings on large walls visible to all.
The utopia taking shape is that of a vast open-air art gallery, with works that were previously displayed and “locked” in the rooms of the most important museums around the world.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - AI
In early 2023, he began exploring artificial intelligence technology. He founded his own AI technology called Inelegans, housed in a data center in Switzerland, and began feeding it with images of classical art.
The resulting images are then translated into spray paint on walls and canvas.
This marks the beginning of a new direction, launching a new parallel project to the recovery of classicism in the contemporary, titled "Inelegans."