Luca Bonfanti

Biography

Luca Bonfanti was born in Desio in 1973 and lives and works in Milan. His artistic path developed outside the academic system: a self-taught artist, he began at a very young age driven by an instinctive need to freely express emotions and thoughts through art. Following a traditional workshop approach, he trained alongside several prominent contemporary Milanese masters.
This direct experience of the craft allowed him to distance himself from academic formalism, focusing instead on the development of a deeply personal and original poetic language. His artistic research unfolds through multiple expressive media: from photography and music to sculpture, where he explored the rawness of matter, and finally to painting, where colour becomes increasingly delicate and refined.
Over time, Bonfanti’s painterly gesture has evolved into a recognisable and distinctive style, characterised by dreamlike, intimate and poetic atmospheres. His works are marked by dense, stratified and vibrant pictorial matter, applied through broad gestures, and by a symbolic use of colour that shifts from one work to another, generating ever-changing tonalities.
Moving within surreal universes, Bonfanti engages in a continuous dialogue with colour, which becomes the true “narrating voice” of his work. His abstract-oriented mark leads the viewer into oniric, introspective and at times esoteric dimensions, where colour stratification and chromatic blending act as metaphors for human perception and emotional experience. References to water, air and the invisible frequently emerge, evoking intuition and inner reflection.
Within his informal language, Bonfanti explores primordial nature and the essence of origins, undertaking a reflective journey through colour and the intricate paths of the soul. His works balance order and chaos, inviting the observer into a profound confrontation with both the external world and personal interiority. Recurring themes include the unity of opposites, the transformation of matter, the becoming of being, and symbolic references to life and death, birth, creation and metamorphosis.
Alongside his artistic career, Bonfanti founded the advertising agency Bonfanti Communication (1998–2014). He became a member of Tau Visual – National Association of Professional Photographers in 2006 and of the International Advertising Association (IAA) in 2007.
From 2010 to 2018 he was among the artists of the Museo della Permanente di Milano. His works have been auctioned by major Italian auction houses since 2013, and in 2021 one of his works entered the private art collection of Vasco Rossi.
To date, Luca Bonfanti has taken part in over 50 exhibitions and has received numerous national and international awards.

SOLO Exhibitions (Selected)

2023–2024
RGB. La Base
Fondazione Stelline, Milan
Curated by Matteo Galbiati and Alessandra Klimciuk
With the patronage of MiBAC, Regione Lombardia and Comune di Milano

2019
Similiter in pictura
Casa del Mantegna Museum, Mantua
Curated by Matteo Galbiati, Elena Pontiggia, Alberto Moioli
With the patronage of MiBAC, Province and Municipality of Mantua

2018
In viaggio: Dante e la luce / Tempo dell’Essere, tempo dell’esistere
Duomo di Massa Carrara
Curated by Centro Studi Milano ’900

2016
Leonardo da Vinci e i Contemporanei
Palazzo Martinengo, Brescia
Touring museum exhibition

Group Exhibitions & Projects (selected)

2011–2015
Il Vecchio e il Giovane
Touring exhibition project, 13 Italian museums
With the patronage of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expo 2015

2014–2015
Container in città
Expo Milano 2015
Founder and artistic director – Container Lab Association

2016–2017
La Genesi
Personal reinterpretation of the Sistine Chapel
Commissioned by Scripta Maneant, Bologna

2021
Pia Philosophia – Homage to Botticelli
Commissioned project, 21 works
Scripta Maneant, Bologna