He has also won a multitude of art prizes including the Doug Moran Portrait Prize and the 2009 People’s Choice Award for his portrait of actor Brandon Walters from Baz Lurhmann’s film Australia.

In 2010 Vincent completed a month-long painting marathon in New York where he painted portraits of 30 identities including DJ Mark Ronson, former boxing champion Lennox Lewis and model Chanel Iman.

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30 Portraits 30 Days is based on projects Fantauzzo undertook in New York and Hong Kong. Fantauzzo is friends with Ledger’s father, Kim, who is managing a film project, The Return of Suzie Wong, that the artist is co-directing with Barney Howells. Fantauzzo said Ledger senior was passionate about the film industry and a great support. ”He always looks out for me and gives me advice.” The painter is heading to LA in the new year to talk to scriptwriters, then in March he’ll be lining up his fashionable clothes as one of the faces of the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival. He’ll need eight outfits for eight days.

Painter needs a fit arm for marathon.

”Baz can’t paint,” says Fantauzzo. ”And I can’t make films. But I’m often inspired by films, and he’s often inspired by paintings, and we wanted to come together and blur the lines. So we made up a story” – the subject of The Creek, 1977, a painting that won this year’s Metro Art Prize – ”and it’s something we’re still working on, something we want to develop over years.” Some day, they both hope, it will become a movie; in the meantime, it has grown into an installation, a work that can be seen in the Lobby Gallery at the Sofitel hotel.

The idea for an installation came from a time when they were both in Fantauzzo’s studio one night. He was working on a painting for which he had also made a video; he showed it to Luhrmann, who suggested projecting it onto the painting. ”And then we switched off a light, and the street light came through, with bars of the studio window directed onto it, and it brought the painting to life.” Soon, they were talking about highlighting additional elements, adding music and sound.
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For the first stage of The Creek, 1977, he says, he and Luhrmann talked about ”the heightened drama of Renaissance paintings, that they were like stills from a play or a film”. They came up with the idea for a painting that could be ”a still from a movie not yet made”.

The work draws on details from Luhrmann’s childhood, growing up in a service station in a country town, as well as Fantauzzo’s memories. They devised characters and a storyline to underpin what we see: a young man being pulled from a car that has crashed into a creek. He is a drifter who has arrived in a small town, and stays with a family of three boys. ”Accidents and scenarios start happening around him; is it his presence, is he causing those things for some reason, or is it just a coincidence?”

Where the specific details of the painting fit in – does it show the beginning of a film or the end, is the young man alive or dead, was the crash accidental or deliberate, was anyone else involved – is still to be determined. He and Luhrmann are interested, Fantauzzo says, in what other people make of the possibilities.

”Even though the image is quite literal, people have very different ideas about it.”

In the installation, the viewer enters a black booth, experiencing the painting, projections, lights, sound effects of a car crash and voices, and a brief score, as well as photographs and additional paintings, additional material that is a mixture of real and imagined images. A smaller version of the painting won the Metro prize; the installation has already been to the Hong Kong International Art Fair and the West Australian Museum.

Fantauzzo is further down the track with another cinematic reference project, The Return of Suzie Wong, a collaboration with director Barney Howells, with an exhibition on show in a Hong Kong gallery. It is based on The World of Suzie Wong, a 1957 novel that was made into a movie starring William Holden and Nancy Kwan.

Fantauzzo and Howells worked on casting and location scouting; Fantauzzo created black-and-white storyboards and painted 15 key images for the exhibition. Talks are taking place with Paramount about Fantauzzo and Howells directing a remake together.

The Creek, 1977 is at the Sofitel, Collins Street, until November 25.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/blurring-the-lines-from-one-image-to-a-moving-picture-20111031-1ms0q.html

Blurring the lines from one image to a moving picture.

This October sees Fantauzzo unveil his highly anticipated Suzie Wong series, 50 years after the popular book The World of Suzie Wong was first published. Collaborating with Australian film director Barney Howells, the series, comprising fifteen major pieces that merge painting with narrative story-telling, will be showcased at 10 Chancery Lane.

Crossing over into film territory is nothing new for the young artist. Last year Fantauzzo and acclaimed director Baz Luhrman (he sexed up Romeo and Juliet and showed us that Nicole Kidman could sing, sort of, in Moulin Rouge) presented a cross-media installation at Art HK 10, The Creek, which fused painting with moving image.  For the Suzie Wong project Fantauzzo and Howells travelled to Hong Kong in search of a modern interpretation of the story, trawling the streets of Central and Wanchai for location scouting, and casting locals rather than celebrities, lending the works a grittier authenticity.

The idea for the exhibition is to present the collection, which will depict key moments in their reworked narrative, alongside illustrated storyboards that flesh out the story. In its entirety the exhibition will allow the audience to experience the narrative as if they were viewing the movie itself. The works will have the scale and resonance of cinematic pieces, while the storyboards evoke the pre-production process, and have the feel of a graphic novel.

The exhibition will debut at 10 Chancery Lane 6 October 2011.

http://www.10chancerylanegallery.com/

But it was all made worthwhile this week when Fantauzzo scooped the prestigious $50,000 Metro Gallery Art Award, the nation’s richest prize for artists 35 and under.

Fantauzzo, who has already this year won the Archibald Packing Room Prize and the Doug Moran Portrait Prize, said he was humbled to win the Metro award for his painting of a man who has just been hit by a car.

The artist modelled for the painting (painting from a photo of himself) and, eerily, was knocked from his motorbike and suffered a broken collarbone the day after he finished the work.
“It was a real sense of déjà vu. It was a pretty weird sensation I can tell you. Lady Luck was certainly on my side that night,” he said.

Carlton artist Andi Tham was also shortlisted for the award for her striking image of a Nike sneaker made from a McDonald’s hamburger.

While the painting could be interpreted as an attack on American consumer culture, artist Tham said she intended it to be ambiguous.

“I’m interested in everyday objects that carry meaning for people, rather than trying to push an idea about what that might mean. I always paint things that I kind of love in some way,” she said.

via MELBOURNE LEADER 29 July 2011

Fantauzzo thanked his lucky stars that he was there to accept the award, after a strange coincidence saw him knocked off his motorbike by a taxi the day after he had finished the work.

“I had been working late and the roads were fairly deserted. I was quietly heading back home on my bike when a taxi in front of me suddenly did a U turn and knocked me for six,” he said.

“It was pretty serious. I had to have emergency surgery immediately for a broken collar bone and I was severely bruised and cut up in general. But it could have been a lot worse. Oddly enough, I had painted the work from photographs of myself as the model, so it was a real sense of déjà vu. It was a pretty weird sensation I can tell you. Lady Luck was certainly on my side that night,” he added.

After his near miss, Fantauzzo has had luck on his side in terms of art prizes in 2011. Before winning Australia’s richest art award for artists aged 35 and under, he won the 2011 Archibald Packing Room Prize with a portrait of Matt Moran in April, and the 2011 Dough Moran Portrait Prize for his painting of Baz Luhrmann in May.

Fantauzzo also picked up the Archibald People’s Choice Prize in 2008 for his portrait of Heath Ledger, and again in 2009 for one of Brandon Walters.

Fantauzzo was also a finalist in the Metro in 2008 and 2009, but was finally able to cross the line this year.

33 year old Fantauzzo was born in the UK and immigrated to Australia when he was four years old. He first picked up a paintbrush when he was 19 and today lives with his wife and son in the Docklands.
Speaking before he knew he had won, Fantauzzo said, “I would be incredibly honoured to win the Metro. It’s not really about the money, although that would give me some breathing space to focus on my art and not worry about where the next pay cheque is coming from for a while. It’s more about the prestige and being in the company of some really iconic past winners such as Sam Leach, Ben Quilty and Marcus Wills, all of whom have gone on to have incredible careers.“
“One thing I do know. If I win, the first thing I am going to do is to throw a big party to say thank you to all my friends who have been so supportive to me over the last 15 years,” he added.
Fantauzzo’s winning entry in the Metro is a huge 170 x 110 cm oil painting called The Creek 1977 which he produced as part of a film project he is working on with Baz Luhrmann.
The Chair of the Metro Selection Panel, the Hon Jeff Kennett AC, former Victorian Premier and Arts Minister, said, “Fantauzzo’s work is multi-layered. His topic and figures are very contemporary and yet they are painted in a dramatic, semi Baroque style which underlines the intensity of the scene. The technique and composition is beautiful. And the emotion of the drama we are witnessing is palpable. Altogether, it is a profoundly haunting painting which pulsates with the dreamlike quality of an old but never forgotten memory.”

Joel Rea’s entry ‘Moment of Truth’, was Highly Commended by the judges.
“Rea’s painting is a vivid exploration of the value of life in the face of death which was inspired by recent natural disasters. We would like to congratulate him on this very powerful, thought provoking work,” said Kennett.

The 2011 Selection Panel comprises the Hon Jeff Kennett AC former Victorian Premier and Arts Minister (Chair); with Fenella Kernebone, Presenter of the ABC TV’s Art Nation Program; the Rev Dr Arthur Bridge AM, founder of Ars Musica Australis, a charitable foundation supporting the creative arts; and human rights advocate Julian Burnside AO QC.

Twenty-five finalists from all over Australia are in the 2011 Metro Gallery Art Award exhibition which runs from now until 30 July at Metro Gallery, 1214 High Street, Armadale, Victoria.

via ARTS HUB 28 JULY 2011

In a strange twist of fate, Fantauzzo, who is also the model in the painting, was knocked off his motor bike by a taxi the day after he had finished working on it. “I had been working late and the roads were fairly deserted,” he said. “I was quietly heading back home on my bike when a taxi in front of me suddenly did a U turn and knocked me for six,” he said. “It was pretty serious. I had to have emergency surgery immediately for a broken collar bone and I was severely bruised and cut up in general. But it could have been a lot worse. Oddly enough, I had painted the work from photographs of myself as the model, so it was a real sense of déjà vu. It was a pretty weird sensation I can tell you. Lady Luck was certainly on my side that night.”

It’s been a lucky year all round for Fantauzzo who scored an Art Prize hat trick today when he won Australia’s richest art award for artists aged 35 and under. He also won the 2011 Archibald Packing Room Prize with a portrait of Matt Moran in April and the 2011 Doug Moran Portrait Prize for his painting of Baz Luhrmann in May. (He also won the Archibald People’s Choice Prizes in 2008 – Heath Ledger; and in 2009 – Brandon Walters).

The Chair of the Metro Selection Panel, the Hon Jeff Kennett AC, former Victorian Premier and Arts Minister, said: “Fantauzzo’s work is multi-layered. His topic and figures are very contemporary and yet they are painted in a dramatic, semi Baroque style which underlines the intensity of the scene. The technique and composition is beautiful. And the emotion of the drama we are witnessing is palpable. Altogether, it is a profoundly haunting painting which pulsates with the dreamlike quality of an old but never forgotten memory.”

“It was pretty serious. I had to have emergency surgery immediately for a broken collar bone and I was severely bruised and cut up in general. But it could have been a lot worse,” he says.

Fantauzzo produced the work as part of a project he is currently completing with film director Baz Luhrmann.

Now in it’s ninth year, the Metro Art Award is an annual $50,000 prize open to emerging artists under the age of 35.

This year the selection panel included former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett, ABC TV arts presenter Fenella Kernebone and human rights advocate Julian Burnside.

Previous winners include Paul White, Jackson Slattery, Sam Leech and Giles Alexander.

Cassie Newman
Vincent Fantauzzo wins the Metro Art Award – Australian Art Collector.

It follows the Archibald Packing Room Prize for his portrait of celebrity chef Matt Moran in April, and the Doug Moran Portrait Prize for his painting of director Baz Luhrmann in May. The entry that won him the prize was a large oil painting called “The Creek 1977″, produced as part of an ongoing film and installation project with Luhrmann. The pair wrote a story about a drifting character who enters the lives of a small community in outback Australia during the 1970s. The male figure in the painting is a self-portrait of the artist, who appears to be dying in a scene of operatic quality.

Its strong use of lighting references Caravaggio, and the painting of the Renaissance artists Fantauzzo has explored in previous works. The judging panel included former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett, ABC TV’s Art Nation presenter Fenella Kernebone and Ars Musica Australis founder Reverend Doctor Arthur Bridge.The 25 finalists from across the country will feature in the 2011 Metro Gallery Art Award exhibition, which will run until July 30 at Metro Gallery, 1214 High Street, Armadale.

via Sydney Morning Herald.