Five artists for the new Valentino Collezione Milano campaign

5 years ago

Maison Valentino and its director Pierpaolo Piccioli have always aimed not to limit their work to the world of art, indeed, every cue is good to create and intensify ties with the world of art and culture.

We have already seen it with the collaboration between Valentino and the writer Tomi Adeyemi, which had the aim of supporting and discovering young emerging writers and again with the creation of the book “The Alphabet for Kids & Adults” together with the writer, comedian and actress Elsa Majimbo.

For the new Valentino Collezione Milano campaign, however, the Maison has really outdone itself, creating a campaign that relies totally on art.

For the “Painters ADV” campaign, 5 young painters were asked to create a work of their choice including a Valentino Collezione Milano accessory.

Louise Giovanelli

The young English painter Louise Giovanelli has created “Dominion” starting from the Valentino Garavani Roman Stud Top Handle and focusing on the volumes of the bag and playing with the seams and shapes creating almost a grid. To get to such an intense black the artist worked overlapping almost transparent layers of color and pigment. Also in this work, as in all her work, a key element is the texture that is achieved once the painting is completed.

“My process for ‘Dominion’ was to zoom in, isolate, crop and re-contextualise — elements of the Valentino bag that I found most visually interesting and that I considered to have further painterly potential. I focussed on the sculptural volume of the bag, rotating and formally adjusting the indentation lines, connecting them corner-to-corner — delineating space.”

photo credits: Michael Pollard

Alexis Ralaivao

The same bag painted by Louise returns in “La Clef”, a work by French painter Alexis Ralaivao. The artist is known for his works with warm tones that convey serenity and tenderness. The texture of his paintings is smooth as if there were a filter, so perfect that you want to brush it with your fingers.

“Right away I had an idea about how the painting should look like. I was picturing it outside, in the deep countryside, with this woman reaching in her bag as she walks. I wanted the bag kind of stuck, pressed between her arms.“

photo credits: Laurent Grivet

Iori Nagashima

Class of 1997, Iori Nagashima was born in Osaka and studied at Musashino Art University. For his paintings, he takes inspiration from his surroundings, what he sees walking down the street, photographs, or even what he finds on the internet. For the “Painters ADV” campaign, he created 青い雨, inspired by the Valentino Garavani Roman Stud Crochet bag and a rainy day.

“The handbag was the main motif, I wanted to draw it in a sense of reality, and tried to express it naturally in the scene. I wanted to give a story to the drawing like a novel or movie, trying to capture a singular moment. The color of the handbag is in beautiful ivory, it quite stands out in the dark.”

photo credits: Naoto Kobayashi

Nahum Kim

The Valentino Garavani Roman Stud Top Handle bag on the other hand is the star of Korean artist Nahum Kim‘s work titled “Roman Stud Space”. Nahum Kim works starting from sketches made in digital and then realizes the work by mixing different tecinics such as oil painting or acrylic colors. Inspired mainly by nature, he creates scenes bordering on the surreal in his works.

“When I first saw the Valentino Garavani Roman Stud Bag, I thought the stud details evoked a variety of emotions as if I was staring at the stars. I wanted to express the mysterious, neat, but fancy stud detail as a star.“

Zhang Zihao

Chinese painter Zhang Zihao chose to paint two paintings. In both works two figures are dressed in the same colors as the backgrounds, black and red. The only details that stand out are the faces and the Valentino Garavani Crochet sneakers they wear on their feet.

“Speaking of Valentino, I think of the color red, and naturally black comes in as the perfect pairing. The faces, they are people I have actually met before, I gave them each an outfit from my imagination that suits their temperament. As a large part of the painting is monochrome, you can easily sense tranquility and a flow of vitality, in turns bringing out the texture of crochet sneakers – they remind me of a sense of comfort.”