The dream-like illustrations of this Italian designer combine Surrealist tropes with a sense of unease to create otherworldly scenes of urban parallel universes.

Scenic Mystery, Massimiliano Grandoni, digital collage, pencil, 2011
Shame, Massimiliano Grandoni, print on paper, 2011
Seeming Act, Massimiliano Grandoni, digital collage, pencil, wax crayons, 2012
Seeming Act (women), Massimiliano Grandoni, digital collage, pencil, 2013
Melancholia, Massimiliano Grandoni digital collage, pencil, wax crayons, 2013
Unknown Lovers I, Massimiliano Grandoni, digital collage, pencil, 2013
Unknown Lovers II, Massimiliano Grandoni, digital collage, pencil, 2013
Shape I, Massimiliano Grandoni, digital collage, 2011
Shape II, Massimiliano Grandoni, digital collage, 2011
Shape III, Massimiliano Grandoni, digital collage, 2011
Young Westerner, Massimiliano Grandoni, digital collage, pencil, 2011

Describe your style.

Suspended, oneiric, metaphysical.



How do you make your images?

The setting and the lighting are the first things I create. I take photos and also found images, edit them and assemble everything together. I add geometrical elements, either drawn by me or found elsewhere, and insert a human figure, which I usually draw in pencil. I then create a collage using computer software.

What is your favourite kind of brief?




I don’ t usually work on a commission basis in my illustration work. It’s happened a couple of times in the past but most of my projects are self-initiated. Sometimes I feel as though I’m a bit outside the illustration industry. It has its benefits though, as everything I create comes from a personal need to create and gives me an opportunity to explore.

Which other designers, illustrators or artists have been an influence on your work?


It’s difficult to me choose as there are many, but the first that come to mind are Modernist Mario Sironi and scuola metafisica artist Giorgio de De Chirico.



Tell us about a recent project.

I am preparing my first solo exhibition right now, which will be held in September in Berlin at Direktorenhaus gallery. In particular I am preparing fifteen works that will be shown for the first time there. All of the work is part of a discourse that I have dedicated myself to for a long time. It features themes and subjects that I’ve been exploring for a while which I’ve revisited.




What does the next year hold for you?

I hope that next year will bring with it new projects, ideas and the right people.

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