Italian painter and sculptor Sandro Chia is our Studio Sunday artist this week. Chia graduated from the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy in 1969 and later spent some time living in New York. He now divides his time between Miami and Rome.

Chia is known as a proponent of the Italian Transavanguardia movement, a painting trend that emphasizes saturated colors and figurative subject matter. And what an incredible array of paints the artist has! It looks like he’s got an entire art-supply shop worth of paint tubes laid out on the table in front of him in the above photo.

Judging from the very colorful nature of the paintings on the wall behind him, and the splashes and smudges of paint throughout the space, it looks like most of his colors get fairly heavy use. I like that the artist is shown working on a sketch that he’s placed on top of even more paint tubes.

Interestingly, he doesn’t seem to have quite the array of brushes that I’ve seen in some other artist studios. Perhaps his loose, textural style doesn’t require as many fine-tipped brushes, or perhaps he does have more, but they’re just not pictured.

Particularly in his paintings, Chia’s works often depict male figures in positions of power, or performing physical activities. The artist’s most recent works seem to explore the tension between this physicality, and transient quality of life in general, juxtaposing strong figures with symbolic, ethereal imagery.

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