About this Archive

Administrative/Biographical History

Born in Milan, Italy, 1960. Franko B moved to London in 1979 integrating into the anarcho-punk scene. He began performing in nightclubs, including the legendary fetish night FIST and, by way of his blood performances, was later responsible for bringing subversive body art into the leading art institutions including ICA, Tate Modern, and Arnolfini. A pioneering artist, Franko B uses his body as a tool to explore the themes of the personal, political, poetic, resistance, suffering and the reminder of our own mortality.

Trawling the media every day, his body of work responds to contemporary politics through the lens of the vulnerable individual. His practice spans curating, drawing, installation, performance and sculpture.

From 2009 to 2016 he taught sculpture at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Macerata in Italy. In 2017 he was appointed Professor of Sculpture at Accademia Albertina in Turin. He has also lectured extensively at art schools including Central Saint Martin's, London; New York University; the Ruskin School of Fine Art, Oxford; Chelsea College of Art, London; Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee; DasArts, Amsterdam; Goldsmiths College of Art, London; Zurich University of the Arts; and the Courtauld Institute of Art, London.

His work has been the subject of four monographs: Franko B (Black Dog Publishing, London, 1998); Oh Lover Boy (Black Dog Publishing, London, 2000); Blinded by Love (Damiani Editore, Bologna, 2006) and I Still Love (Motta/Il Sole 24 Ore, Milan, 2010).

More information can be found at Franko B's website: www.franko-b.com.

Scope and Content

Artwork - drawings, paintings, sculpture, needlework, photographs, prints, conceptual pieces - together with press cuttings, programmes, publications, books, posters, flyers, information sheets, exhibition catalogues and ephemera by or about the performance artist Franko B. Includes life-size reclaimed wooden confessional painted gold; images embroidered with red cotton on canvas; work done in neon; ceramic figures and other sculptural pieces; photographic prints; vials of blood; archive of photographic negatives covering all periods of Franko's work; extensive digital archive of video, photography, documents and other works [1996-2022]