Fabrizio Sannicandro (Teramo 1965) is an artist, sketcher and designer whose research is characterized by an intense and poetical visual language, able to get through different expressive areas – from painting to graphic,art, from illustration to design – meanwhile maintaining a deep consistency among pictorial gesture, matter and narration.
His education begins at the Art College in Teramo and continues at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, where he studies painting and then enriches his experience at the Illustration and Comics School “Zio Feininger”, where he is able to interact with authors such as Andrea Pazienza, Lorenzo Mattotti, Igort and other main characters of the “Valvoline” group,
Right from the beginning, Sannicandro combines pictorial practice with a strong focus on image as a communication tool, ranging from editorial illustration to graphic design.
In the Eighties and Nineties he draws illustrations for national newspapers and magazines such as “ Il Manifesto”, “Il Gambero Rosso”, and “Frigidaire” and collaborates as an art director with several communication agencies. In the early 2000s he establishes himself as a designer and creative consultant for leading international clothing brands – notably Napapijri, The North Face, Adidas Italia and Armani – working on styling, branding and visual communication projects. From 2013 on he focuses more on cultural planning, taking care (among others) of the merchandising line and visual identity of the “Fondazione Crocetti” in Rome on the occasion of the sculptor Venanzo Crocetti’s centenary of birth and collaborates with Lisciani Giochi to the creation of the image and graphic design for the Ludattica line.
In recent years his activity mainly focuses on contemporary art, producing paintings and installations which explore themes as memory, identity and relationship. Personal exhibitions such as VITE ( S,Maria di Propezzano Abbey, 2021), AMA ( Ipogea Hall. Teramo, 2021) and ARCANI ( Crocetti Foundation, Roma 2022) mark a research cycle where pictorial language opens up to a symbolic narrative able to look into collective imaginary through the representation of the body and the human. In 2022 he takes part in the” UpCycle. When art reinvents the world” collective exhibition , at the Italian Embassy in Bern, curated by Antonello Tolve and Silvio Mignano; in the same year he is one of the participants to ONEFLAG, a public art project, in Teramo, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Interamnia World Cup. He has been a finalist in the Mestre National Prize and in the ArteAm Cup in Savona. In 2023 he participates in the “D’oro e di Terra” exhibition, in the loggia of the belvedere in Giulianova and he starts a project named LE CERAMIkE, a dialogue with master ceramists of the Italian ceramic tradition. In 2025 he holds the personal exhibition “La gravità degli angeli ubriachi” (Drunken Angels’ Gravity) at Palazzo De Thermes in Civitella del Tronto.
Sannicandro’s artworks are passed through a narrative tension which rejects an objective representation of reality and opens up to an evocative and choral dimension where figures, faces and animals – recurring themes in his iconography – inhabit a scene suspended between personal memory and collective memory. His painting brings into play some sort of minor history made of relationships, encounters and silent tracks which stratify like inner landscapes. The artist thus not only delivers images but also builds a narration of existence where everyday life reconnects with a deep notion of humanity.
Solo show
2021
- “Vite” – Abbazia di S. Maria di Propezzano
- “AMA” – Sala Ipogeo – Teramo
2022
“ARCANI” – Fondazione Crocetti – Roma
Group Show
2023
“Mostra D’Oro e di terra “ – Loggiato del Belvedere di Giulianova, avviando il progetto “ Le Ceramike” in dialogo con i maestri della tradizione ceramica Italiana
2022
“UpCycle. Quando l’arte reinventa il mondo” – Ambasciata Italiana a Berna a cura di Antonello Tolve e Silvio Mignano
“Oneflag” – arte pubbica a Teramo in occasione del cinquantenario dell’Interamnia World Cup
Prize
2023
- finalista Premio Nazionale di Mestre
- Finalista Premio ArteAm Cup – Savona