VEGA, stage name for Fabio Viola, created by the fusion of two surnames, the paternal and maternal one…Viola and Gandola.
 
Born in Milan in 1961 in an atelier house of a family of artists, since childhood he expressed aptitude and passion for drawing and painting.
His father, an eclectic and accomplished painter and sculptor, transmitted to him the first rudiments on painting and drawing techniques. After graduating in languages in 1982, he moved to the United States where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Usiu University in San Diego. At that time was organized his first exhibition at the La Jolla Gallery within walking distance of the university campus. On that first occasion he exhibited small oil canvases and pastels depicting Italian seascapes, customary themes at the time.  Back to to Italy Vega increased his artistic activity, basing his works of that period mainly on forms with straight, angular lines. While never abandoning his pictorial activity, he devoted himself since 1990 to the design of wristwatches, collaborating with the most prestigious “maisons horlogères” and later creating his own brand, My Watch, which he would later give up in order to dedicate himself entirely to the arts.

Fascinated by the search for applications of various materials, in 1998 he made a series of works with wood, cork, plastics, metals and old watch parts. In 2004, after submitting a proposal of watches designs, bags and suitcases to various fashion brands such as Armani, Versace, Moschino and Fiorucci, he came in contact with new materials; becomes passionate about the use of leathers and various kinds of fabrics starting a new artistic line made of applications of discarded materials, also in support of environmental sustainability,  that still represents his prerogative and characteristic that distinguishes him making his artworks immediately recognizable.

A skilled drawer, usually he starts from the drawing which he subsequently breaks down to add then sought-after applications of materials. Direct, immediate works with great coloristic and emotional impact!

This at first glance Vega’s works convey to us! But in them, dwelling on a closer analysis, we can detect much more. The aspects that emerge from Vega’s work are closely connected with man and his intimacy in the expression of moments of life. In their essentiality of message we find “tranche de vie” ranging from the playful to the profound, from love to passion, from the light to the irreverent, as it is in life. Vega describes various moments with the ability to tell the moods they represent; his themes range, he is open and capable of depicting everything, every situation, without fear or embarrassment, with a personal narrative decision devoid of trivial effects aimed at “pleasure by force.” His thinking points straight to the essence of the message, unfiltered, yet able to leave us with ample freedom of interpretation.

From a formal point of view, his decomposed figures always maintain a harmony even in the intentional and refined anatomical deformations. Great attention is paid to the care of space, the overall composition of Vega’s work is rigorously balanced, the solids and voids compensating in an overall context of shapes and colors.