Simona Candini Pop Surrealism Artist

My name is Simona Candini and I’m an Italian artist currently based in Bologna. I lived in the USA for a few years and I started there my art career as a full-time artist about 10 years ago.

In 2020 I’ve celebrated my 10 years of career and I finally got me an assistant that lives in WA. He takes care of all the prints orders in my Etsy shop so I can finally concentrate mostly on creating my paintings.
I’m graduated at the Fine Art Academy of Bologna, but I actually consider myself a self-taught artist since I attended classes where traditional painting was not taken into considerations.

Also coming from a scientific high school I really had to start from the basis and so some books as well as the internet were very helpful. I was painting by myself since I was a child, so years of practice and dedication took me where I’m now, but I still want to learn a lot especially about oil painting which is my favorite technique.
I’ve always liked to customize my frames to have them matching my artworks. Lately, I have a passion for teacups and everything that reminds me of Alice In Wonderland, and so my frames are also decorated like bone china teacups and reminds the porcelain decorations with floral patterns and roses.
I’ve even used lace in the past, velvet and fabric to cover up my frames and resemble Victorian tapestry and furnitures and give my art a gothic atmosphere.

My art is characterized by the dichotomy between light and dark and my characters are known to be mostly creepy cute dolls with big eyes and heads.

They can be fairies or witches, ladies from literature or aliens, innocent little girls or cute brats, mythological creatures or characters from a fairy tale. They all have in their big eyes a bright light of beauty and hope as well as a melancholic languid glare. They live in a world of dualities populated by strange little creatures, sweet mascots and sometimes creepy monsters.

In my artworks, I’ve celebrated the empowerment of the women and the love for what is considered different, or even “defective”. Little broken dolls and robot girls missing pieces, but that can still love a lot and have hope. Sometimes art is a therapy for me that creates it and for the people who collect it. There is a special red thread that unites me, my art and my viewers that is something magical and irreplaceable. I love when somebody reaches out and tells me that my art helped them healing during a thought period, that they could relate with the emotions that my paintings are conveying. I had the occasion to make very good friends among the art circle on the socials and I had the pleasure to meet some of them in person during my trips.

I offer my art directly myself through Etsy and through my collectors preview mailing list. I also collaborate with some galleries around the globe and I love to work in team with them especially for solo shows.

It’s possible to know more about me and my art in my official website simonacandini.com and to subscribe to my collectors preview list by contacting me at simonacandini@hotmail.com with the subject “COLLECTORS PREVIEW”.

fantasy big eyes doll art by Simona Candini A Mourning Melody For Miss Havisham