Rouge Désir, 2025

Fabio Purino  

Fabio Purino (born in 1972 in Hayange, Moselle) is a Franco-Italian contemporary artist whose work lies at the intersection of painting, graphic design, and cinema. Former artistic director of the European cultural channel ARTE, since 2020 he has been exploring a pictorial language inspired by film editing and the French New Wave.

Key facts

Born: 1972, Hayange (Moselle, France)
Education: Metz Academy of Fine Arts
Previous career: Artistic Director of ARTE (1994-2008)
Award: Promax Europe, Eyes & Ears Germany. Style: Fusion of cinema, graphic design, illustration, and painting.

Background and influences

Purino began his career in visual arts, media production, and institutional communication before dedicating himself exclusively to painting. His experience in visual media—notably for France 2, RTL Germany, and MTV—shaped an approach where pictorial composition is conceived as montage. His influences include Michelangelo Antonioni, Saul Bass, David Hockney, and Jean-Luc Godard.

Aesthetics and themes

His works are characterized by cut-out figures, flat areas of vibrant color, and a strong graphic tension. Purino doesn't "paint" in the classical sense: he "assembles" the canvas like a film sequence. Each painting becomes a suspended narrative fragment, questioning visual memory and the perception of time. The artist advocates a "painting of resistance," which opposes the homogenization of the contemporary image.

Recent exhibitions

Between 2024 and 2025, Purino presented several exhibitions in France and Germany (“La Bella Confusione," “Flowers," “Masculine-Feminine") before his major Italian retrospective, La Nouvelle Vague. This exhibition, held at the Palazzo delle Arti Beltrani in Trani, explored the intersection of cinema, figures, and cut-out forms. Praised for its immersive approach, it solidified his artistic and emotional connection to the city, which he later celebrated in the Spiaggia di Trani series.

Importance in contemporary art

Purino occupies a unique place in the current European art scene: his work combines the rigor of design, the sensitivity of auteur cinema, and the freedom of abstract painting. He embodies a generation of artists who see the image as an act of thought, capable of creating meaning in an age of visual saturation.