Artist of the Week: Conceptual Illustrations by Davide Bonazzi
Art is as much an outlet for self-expression, as it is a way to express your opinion on a subject, or just getting people informed.
Art can be used to illustrate information in much the same way infographics do, only it illustrates opinion, rather than fact. This makes art a marvelous way to raise awareness about important issues, and state where you stand, as an artist, on said issues.
This week, we will be looking at an artist who does just that.,using illustration to make people think about certain events, be they recent or old, and at times, providing us with glimpses into what he himself things about them.
Davide Bonazzi is the artist’s name, and before we show you his marvelous illustrations, let’s tell you a few things about him.
Davide was born in 1984 in Bologna, where he also currently resides. He followed his passion, not only professionally, but academically as well. Aside from getting a degree from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Bologna, he also studied illustration at the European Institute of Design in Milan, and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna.
He began his work as a freelance illustrator in 2003, and since then he has added quite a few impressive clients to his name, including The Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, American Airlines, Greenpeace, University of Glasgow, and Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition, to name but a few of them.
Mixing digital techniques with textures of found objects, Davide creates wonderful, thought-provoking illustrations, and it is easy to see why he is such a sought-after illustrator. We have collected some of our favorite ones to show you in this article, and if you want to see more, we encourage you to visit his website.
1. Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporations are being pressured more and more to become socially responsible. The latest stock market crash has, at the very least, an image backlash, if not a financial one, on big companies.
This illustration talks about how with great power should come great responsibility, and how the corporate world needs to start thinking at more than just the individual level.
2. Waiting for the Sun
We are not sure if this illustration’s message is, if there is any, but we do like the concept behind it, and the play on words inherent in it.
The piece is called Waiting for the Sun, and you can see how both the “waiting” and the “sun” part are all molded into one. The artist does this by making the sun the buffering animation from Youtube.
3. Fake Friends
The saying goes “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”, but drawing just that would have been pretty cliché. Here, Davide takes the saying, and reinterprets it, using two different animals: a shark and a dolphin.
It brings to mind a somewhat recent news story we heard, where the both the Russian and U.S. military have been training military dolphins. We really do live in Red Alert, don’t we?
4. Neo-Nazism in Europe
The recent elections for the European Parliament have brought to light two worrying trends in European mentality, namely the increasing popularity of far-right political parties and Euro-skepticism.
Although at a declarative level, most these parties deny having anything to do with the national socialist movement, it is hard not be a little bit worried.
Davide captures this trend brilliantly with his illustration, depicting the skeletal remains of Hitler, crawling out of their grave, illustrated as Europe.
5. Made in China
There is no denying that China has taken its place among the worlds super-powers. Having an absolutely booming economy that mixes communism with capitalism (for better or for worse is a matter of debate), the country’s target market is the world.
This is a marvelous illustration of China’s ubiquity on the world market, showing various objects that we use on a daily basis, all made there (we would argue, however, that the furniture is of Swedish origins).
6. Overspending in Football
Whether you are in to it or not, fact of the matter is that plenty of people enjoy the game. That makes football big business. And as with most big businesses, the businessmen don’t really know when to stop spending.
The artist uses a fairly classic image, that of a man lighting a cigar from a burning banknote (here drawn as a football field), to create an image that evokes decadence and the downfall of the beauty of the game.
7. Freedom
Wire fences are, of course, associated with captivity. Here that concept is explored by slowly morphing the spikes on the fence into birds.
8. Chemistry of Seduction
Everything we experience is a series of chemical reactions. Some might view this as an over-simplification of the human condition, but there is nothing simple about chemistry.
Davide took seduction, and brilliantly illustrated it, using elements of chemistry to show the science behind the art. The symbols might also play a role in seduction, but we know far too little about to properly go into it.
9. Diagnosing Alzheimer’s
This is an illustration that Bonazzi did for an article in Scientific American, the popular science magazine from the United States.
As Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative disorder, the best way to uncover the disease in time is peeking at the brain, which is illustrated here as a curtain. The disease itself is frightful, and as such, the artist made it look like a shadowy monster behind the curtain.
10. Datagate
Datagate was a big issue back in 2013, when the possibility that the NSA overreached and monitored the internet activities of European citizens in Europe was hinted at. European leaders were outraged, bringing more critique to the US’s already controversial anti-terrorist strategies.
To illustrate this, Davide took the iconic American bald eagle, and made its wings look like drapes. Through those drapes, we see an eye peeking through, expressing how liberty -the bald eagle- is being spied upon.
11. Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a reading disorder that inhibits people to accurately read and comprehend written language, regardless of intelligence level. This means that it has no impact on things like, say, a person’s IQ level.
The artist attempts to express this with his illustration.
12. Ménière’s Disease
Alzheimer’s, dyslexia, and now Ménière’s. Davide appears to be really interested in health issues.
Ménière’s is a disorder that affects the inner ear, and is characterized by episodes of vertigo and low-pitched tinnitus. The disorder can also manifest itself by periods of deafness, that eventually lead to permanent deafness.
13. Climate Change
Another one of Davide’s commissioned works, this time for Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly, it tackles the topic of climate change.
The message here seems to be that we need to do something about global warming. But, depending on which side you are one, you can see this as the opposite, meaning that mankind’s intervention is not necessary, as climate change is a natural process.
14. Underwater Theater
Once again, we don’t really know if there is a message here, but the illustration is simply gorgeous. We especially love the way the two fish’s shadows form a mask below them.
15. Arab Spring
We won’t need many words to talk about this illustration. In fact, we only need one: autumn.
This concludes our article on Davide Bonazzi’s stunning conceptual illustrations. We do hope you enjoyed his illustrations as much as we did, and that you will check out his website. Please leave us your thoughts, and what you think the illustrations are about, in the comment section below.
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