More and more street art in Florence: Stormie Mills painted a mural for the rowers in Florence
More and more street art in the streets of Florence. From Friday 27th to Sunday 29th April, Australian artist Stormie Mills painted a “mural” on the outside wall of the company’s headquarters in Florence, via di Villamagna 41.
The event, organized by Florence Biennale – International Exhibition of Contemporary Art, is in close connection with the 82nd Mostra dell’Artigianato in Florence, which takes place at the Fortezza da Basso until Tuesday, May 1, 2018 and it’s part of the project “Florence Street Art – Art Can Change the World”, in collaboration with the Municipality of Florence, Firenze Fiera and the Street Levels Gallery. The inauguration of the mural, entitled The Lost Rowing, was on Monday, April 30, at 11.30, in the presence of the author Stormie Mills, the Councilor for Sports of the City of Florence, Andrea Vannucci, the councilor Cosimo Guccione, the representative of the District 3 Letizia Perini, the Director of the Società Canottieri Firenze Giancarlo Tarchi and a representative of the Rossini Philharmonic.
The mural of Stormie Mills: a lost giant in Florence
The Australian street artist Stormie Mills painted a mural, for the first time in Italy, in Florence, on a wall of the Società Canottieri di Firenze. The artist painted a “lost giant” sitting inside a boat that seems to be drifting, with no rudder or oars.
The artist’s career begins in the Australian cities where, since 1984, he has given voice to the lost souls of the suburbs with a collection of characters inspired and deeply connected to the streets. His creative journey begins in the forgotten corners of the cities: buildings and abandoned streets become his support to paint. The color palette of Stormie is distinctly monochromatic. The black represents the dirt, the white symbolizes the erasures, the gray is taken from the urban landscape and the silver is connected to the dimension of dreams. The works draw on a deep sense of isolation, and every character seems to carry a message of hope. These opposing elements show a strong presence of humanity in Stormie’s artworks – when art captures the tenderness of the human condition, people connect with it.
Thus was born his series of iconic “Lost Giant” – an exciting global initiative promoted by the artist who aims to see his greatest characters painted in as many cities as possible around the world. The idea of the “lost giants” is inspired by a personal moment in his life. At the age of 16 he found himself lost, wandering in places he had never seen before. Traveling alone in cities like New York and London, Stormie perceived the greatness of the urban landscape. The feeling of getting lost in what he perceived as an oversized urban landscape led Stormie to channel his feelings into these gigantic characters that roam the city.