ABOUT
GUMM (born 1969) is an anonymous Italian artist, best known for his trademark "crushed" technique.Self-taught photographer he celebrates mass-produced consumer products related to entertainment and references the Pop art roots of these works. His interest has focused on vintage comics and magazines of the most enduring and recognizable characters of the twentieth century, keeping homesickness and feelings to them connecte. Combining mega-realistic photography techniques, he represents iconic symbols revisited in a contemporary key through the use of new colors and shapes. His sculptural work focuses on expressing on canvas the maximum definition and depth that for him is the surface, the compressed and crushed matter folded by the artist's hand gives the work abstract forms that suggest movement and a sense of transformation that goes beyond the fragility of the paper objects that alludes to the passage of time.
GUMM is an emerging italian artist representative of the Neo-Pop movement.
He's know for his joyful and vibrant giant crushed cans which offer abstract visions of everyday life.
Master of small things made bigger, his art pieces are inspired by pop culture and influenced by American pop art, notably Andy Warhol, as well as by hyperrealist contemporary sculptures, revealing the evolution of a distinctive visual language.
Raised in Venice, GUMM is deeply influenced by the city and its Biennale, which constantly nourishes and shapes his educational and artistic journey.
The real creative breakthrough took place in 2015. On a rainy day, while strolling through the streets, his gaze fell on a crushed and sun-faded can abandoned on the wet tarmac. This seemingly ordinary and yet miraculous object somehow enlightened him and inspired the powerful message that he felt needed to be created and displayed on a giant-scale.
In Venice, GUMM opened his studio and developed the concept of "Superflat Pop-Cans" an artistic trend that allowed him to transform his message into giant icons with a strong emotional impact, playing with irony, satire and optical illusions.
While taking inspiration from Warhol, GUMM departs from his typical seriality, reinventing objects of mass culture such as soup cans and soda cans. No longer taken from the supermarket, but metaphorically collected from the street and the dustbin, he makes them giant transforming them into unique artworks. With this irreverent and provocative gesture, he pokes fun at consumer culture and the excesses of contemporary society.
The crushed can becomes the symbol of man, of fragility and authenticity, in contrast to the images and iconic elements of the labels that embody global consumerism. He invites us to reflect on how the object of desire, reduced to an ephemeral commodity, and social media abuse have "emptied and crushed" humans and relationships turning us into foolish "landfill objects", losing our identity, authenticity and value.
GUMM is an eclectic artist who explores reality and fiction using various media and exquisite photographic manipulation on a graphic tablet, evoking the sensation of observing the images of the
labels through the surface of water, a clear reference to the high waters of Venice.
His art has developed in two complementary strands: mixed media photography and aluminium wall sculptures. The photographs act as visual mirrors of the sculptures, creating links between the real and the fictional and amplifying the artist's message.
He encourages the public to create connections between themselves and the work of art by inviting them to observe his creations from different angles to explore new perspectives, discover new meanings and create the illusion that life, thoughts and emotions are hidden behind the layer of aluminium.
Currently, GUMM exhibits in prestigious art galleries all over the world.
