I am a painter and a bodypainter. I am an artist who permanently holds a paintbrush in one hand and a suitcase in the other! Thanks to my dedication, my creativity and a bit of luck I succeeded in turning my passion into a job – my job. I am however always in pursuance of new experiences involving new spurs, new challenges and new ideas. I am fully convinced that the creational process is much more important than creation itself – and I am fully convinced that observation, curiosity and exercise are crucial keys to success.
After taking my degree in Architecture, I began my artistic career as a Painter – which is still progressing these days. I found myself charmed by the magic world of Bodypainting. And this magic world captured my heart and opened to a whole new world! The prizes I was awarded as Italian Bodypainting and as World Bodypainting and Facepainting Champion fully transformed my life. Nowadays, I am always on the move, in a continuous succession of trips, events, workshops, new projects and new face- and bodypainting creations for demos, workshops and performances – all of which requiring constant planning and scheduling.
Those moments when I am not a “globetrotter”, I live in Tuscany not too far away from the Tyrrhenian Sea with Francesca - my wife and main pillar of my team – and Mera, a red cat that can be grumpy and cuddly at the same time.
Matteo Arfanotti is an internationally renowned Bodypainter and a three-time World Champion. In 2013, for the very first time in the history of World Bodypainting Festival, he is awarded the two titles as both Bodypainting and Facepainting World Champion. Then again in 2018 he is awarded the World Championship in the Team Show Award category together with his friend and artist Nick Wolfe – he himself a multiple champion.
He is a versatile and curious artist, permanently charmed by new forms of art and experimentation. He has successfully combined his passion for painting to his architectural studies, thus creating his own artistic research path - stretching from artistic inspiration to scientific precision. He has thus achieved an eclecticism which has enabled him to use different disciplines and techniques and combine them into ever new and innovative syntheses.
After dedicating more than twenty years to drawing, painting and installation, in 2010 he comes closer to the world of Bodypainting which bewitches him with its extraordinary power to create ephemeral works and creatures to last not more than a few hours. After two years, in 2012, he is awarded the Italian Bodypainting Championship, the two World titles the following year, and a third one in 2018.
In the following years he is awarded several awards both in Italy and abroad – which open him the doors to
fame and the five continents and make him one of the most appreciated and esteemed bodypainters on
the international level. He is indeed one of the most valued teachers within this discipline and is particularly
renowned for his three-dimensional effects and his “monster faces” by which he creates the illusion of
changes in facial features and expressions. He has been a guest and a teacher at the most prestigious
international face- and bodypainting conventions and has also held workshops everywhere in Europe and in
many other countries in the World, including Israel, the United States of America, Canada, Mexico, Costa
Rica, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand and South Corea. Quite a few among his former students are nowadays
well known and successful artists on a world level.
He has been Visiting Professor at many international make-up academies – among which the MBC MakeUp
Beauty Academy in Seoul, the Metamorphoses in Strasbourg and Montpellier, the Make-Up For Ever
Academy in Paris and its Italian subsidiary La Truccheria in Bologna. He has been both a guest and a
member of the jury at the most important international contests. In 2012, his artistic performances for
“The Apprentice” television program are highly appreciated and so are those for such important events as
“Vision Award” at Locarno Cinema Festival in 2013, or as the opening show at Singapore Formula One
Grand Prix in 2014, the TelAviv Party at the Israeli Pavilion withing EXPO2015 in Milan, the Sulmona
International Film Festival in 2017, the Bodypainting Event at Sofitel Malabo in Equatorial Guinea in 2017,
the IMATS International Make-Up Artist Trade Show in London in 2018, the 2019 New Year’s Eve “Palace in
the Sea” show and the 2020 New Year’s Eve “Dreamland” for Badrutt’s Palace Hotel in Saint Moritz –
Switzerland - organised by OZ Eventi – where he creates 10 bodypaintings on the Equilibre Events corps de
ballet dancers - and again the Demo Corner at The Prosthetics Event in Coventry in 2022 and in 2023.
Numerous are then his artistic performances at countless bodypainting, tattoo and burlesque events and festivals or on the occasion of other artistic events, parties, shows or other promotional events for Italian and foreign companies. Since 2012, he has been busy creating make-ups for the first-category parade float masks at Viareggio Carnival – in a first phase for the Fratelli Bonetti team and later on, since 2020, with Jacopo Allegrucci’s crew. He has made prosthetic make-ups for cinema setting to create special effects on skeletons used as props for the film “Agadah” by Alberto Rondalli in 2017. He has held a masterclass on splatter make-up at the 16th “Fedic” National Traineeship “Anche questo è fare cinema”. He lives in Fosdinovo, Tuscany, and works both in Italy and all over the world.
