Kristyna Fontanive
I am an Italian artist with a background in visual arts. I studied in Bologna where I completed a Bachelor’s degree in Comics and Illustration. I later specialized in Children’s Editorial Illustration at Ars in Fabula and attended courses at the Štěpán Zavřel Foundation. I am currently enrolled in evening printmaking classes at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. I have a strong interest in children’s illustration, which I see as a powerful and essential channel of communication. In my works, I explore subtle dissonances, small fractures between the softness of lines and colors and the depth of their meaning. It is within these tensions that reflection begins, nurturing dialogue, transformation and a living connection with the audience, regardless of age.
Inhabiting the fracture
40x30 cm
lithograph on paper
My illustration is a black and white lithograph where two human-faced cockroaches meet across a chessboard. I chose them as symbols of resilience and adaptation in urban life. One piece seems to dominate, yet victory is only a moment within a cyclical game. The tension between instinctive creatures and the symbolic human act of chess reflects the ambiguity of conflict and strategy. From the cracked chessboard, plants emerge, suggesting life’s persistence. The work envisions the city as a living space of strategies, collisions, and growth, where humans, animals, and plants continuously coexist and transform.