SILVIO SEVERINO

Silvio Severino: O Numero de Viado

Collage has come a long way in the last few years. Traditions are still there, but so much of the contemporary world has fed into this genre of art. One particular innovation within the world of collage, is the gif. 

Animated gifs are still in the public imagination limited to the zany, the cute, the annoying. With hopping rabbits and animated emoticons being forefront in most peoples minds. But art has shifted the animated gif into an entirely different world, a world of social questioning, of commentary, of satire, and observation. 

This is the world inhabited by the photographer, collage, and gif animation artist Silvio Severino. Silvio was born and raised in Brazil, but has spent the last fifteen years in Europe, he now lives in Brussels.

Silvio Severino: Sem Titulo (Mas Com Muitas Lentes)

Silvio Severino: You Don't Know Who I'm

Although photography is his foundation, the medium he has used to support his creative work, he has found that photography in itself is not able to do everything he wants it to as an artist. Photography for Silvio has limitations and those limitations have led him to find new creative fields first in collage, and then in gif animation.

When he started experimenting with collage and gifs, Silvio immediately noticed that it gave him a new perspective, a new way to express what was on his mind. Interestingly, he sees collage and gif animation complimenting each other, with gifs becoming animated versions of his collage work.

For his collage work Silvio prefers the old school physicality of paper, and even for his gif animation pieces, paper is the starting point. He uses images from vintage magazines as a base.

Silvio Severino: Ahhh...I Don't Think So!

Silvio Severino: Neo-Colonialism

A lot of artists struggle between the worlds of analog and digital. Some come down on the traditional, some on the contemporary, and some are happy somewhere in between. Silvio, as an artist, feels comfortable in both the analog and digital world, and that is a rarity, but a significant and attractive rarity. It gives him a unique creative position, one where he crosses and recrosses the traditional and the contemporary worlds, using the best of both in order to achieve the results he does, which is phenomenal.

In a world saturated with imagery from both professional and amateur, it is wonderful to be able to see contemporary artists playing with that saturation of imagery. Artists like Silvio are searching for new values, new visual languages that incorporate photography and animation. It is an exciting new frontier in contemporary art and has a long and creatively rich path to go. 

Silvio Severino: Prosopagnosia III

Silvio Severino: The Hypnotist Is Back

Silvio is interested in exploring a range of aspects of our world culture, through both collage and gif animation. From consumerism, the idealisation of beauty and sexuality, to the banality of publicity and celebrity, and of course religion is always there with most artists somewhere in the background, as it is with Silvio, religious iconography and sentiment appearing regularly in his work.

This is an artist that understands the traditions of creativity. He understands that much of collage derives from Dadaism and Surrealism and he has those as his roots. But this is an artist that also understands gifs, glitches, loops, the bedrock of contemporary animation and video art. 

Silvio Severino

Silvio Severino: Sidney Magal XV

Silvio is an artist that has a lot to explore, and as technology develops he will take that exploration further into this new century of the creative arts.

Silvio Severino

All work is copyrighted to the artist. Please ask permission before sharing imagery. Thank you.