Vincent Fantauzzo overcame a troubled childhood to become an art superstar. Artist Vincent Fantauzzo is conscious of the light. It cuts a line across his handsome features before creeping through the cavernous studio space in a classroom of a now defunct school. A film of dust on the window softens the early morning glare, but does little to detract from the intensity of Fantauzzo’s wide eyes. He’s used to working with natural light to capture portraits; the difference this time is the lens is pointed his way.
Fantauzzo is the Australian art world’s man of the moment. Just last week he took home the world’s most lucrative portraiture prize, the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, worth $150,000, for his depiction of filmmaker Baz Luhrmann in a moment of vulnerability. Weeks before, he flew to Sydney to collect the Archibald’s Packing Room Prize for a portrait of his “good mate” and feted chef Matt Moran, surrounded by hanging lamb carcasses, a cheeky smile playing with the edges of his eyes. Fantauzzo says the prize, judged by the staff who unpack all Archibald entries, was a huge thrill. ‘‘They don’t just see the 30 finalists, they see all 800 entries, so for them to choose my one is massive to me.’’
From afar, both paintings could be mistaken for photographs, such is the level of detail and accuracy. They’re emotive, powerful and striking, and they each carry an unchecked honesty that Fantauzzo himself exudes.
Fantauzzo’s work was first thrust into the public spotlight in 2008 when he controversially entered the Archibald with a portrait of Heath Ledger that the actor had sat for only weeks before his sudden death. That year Fantauzzo won the People’s Choice Award. “There was a lot of emotion behind the award,” he says in his gentle voice. “But because Heath’s parents were behind it so much, it made it more of a celebration.”
The following year Fantauzzo proved there was more to his talent than his knack of choosing celebrity subjects, when he won the Archibald People’s Choice Award for a portrait of child actor Brandon Walters, whose eyes radiated a knowing innocence. “I paint them to show what they’re about,” Fantauzzo says of the portraits. “I never feel like it’s my image. Painting portraits is a collaboration with the subject.”
His work has often been likened to cinematic stills. It’s not surprising. Unable to read well as a child, Fantauzzo was drawn into the world of storytelling through film.
His artistic talent wasn’t realised until he was 19. Born in England, he came to Australia at four. One of five siblings, he bounced around Broadmeadows and Glenroy, moving house and getting kicked out of school for “always being in trouble”.
An amateur boxer, he left school at 14, following his Italian father into the hospitality industry as a chef. At 19 he picked up his first paintbrush and painted a portrait of Albert Einstein. “I saw this poster and it said: ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’. It gave me the confidence to know that imagination is the most important thing, not reading and writing.”
As an undiagnosed dyslexic, Fantauzzo had found schooling impossible, but armed with an impressive folio he managed to enter the university system. It didn’t take long before he was “busted for cheating in exams” and his dyslexia was finally identified.
“It was really embarrassing and hard to confront,” Fantauzzo says. “Before that I thought ‘OK I’m not good at it’ (reading and writing) because I left school and I didn’t get the chance to learn. When I found out I was dyslexic I thought ‘Ah shit, I can’t learn like other people learn’.”
It hasn’t stopped him. In his portrait portfolio Fantauzzo can list such public figures as international models Jessica Hart and Chanel Iman. He could name-drop Baz Luhrmann and L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival chairwoman Laura Anderson as friends. He doesn’t. Instead he discusses the lesser known projects he has been working on.
He’s a self-confessed workaholic. “Even when the brush isn’t on the canvas, I’m working,” he says. “I dream about art, I think about art, I see things differently. I can’t ever escape the work, which is a good thing because I love it. But sometimes it is tiring.”
Recently he travelled to New York where he averaged four hours sleep a night and completed 30 portraits in 30 days. “I figured it would be a good way of meeting a whole bunch of really interesting people,” he says.
Ordinarily, a portrait may take months of work. “I can paint really quickly but I think that’s practice,” he admits. It may take weeks, however, to decide on what photograph to paint from, or what subject and space to work with.
“Two things I think I do very naturally are boxing and painting — oh, and riding a motorbike,” he says flashing a cheeky smile. “Reading a book is difficult, times tables are difficult, but painting is actually relaxing because it’s so easy.”
Profitable too. Fantauzzo’s work has a blue-chip price that is increasing both nationally and internationally, with his work now selling for well in excess of $300,000 a canvas. There are not too many artists who can live off their trade. “I feel so lucky to be able to make a living and have people respond to my work. It’s a privilege.”
For now the youthful 33 year old is content. He lives with his wife Michelle and young son Luca in Docklands and he’s training for a boxing match this year. His arms look alarmingly slender but he’s quick to point out, “these chicken wings are pretty quick and that’s the best for fighting’’.
It’s a fitting metaphor for the fight to make it as an artist – to perform, to produce, to be profitable and to stand the test of time.
“Money isn’t everything but it sure can help,” says Fantauzzo. “It means nothing if you don’t have family and friends. Why create all this art if you have no one to share it with?”
Right now the art world is watching.
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