Gore Soprano - Milan

Josh Steeples

It's always nice to try and connect with a local artist if possible whilst I’m roaming around various cities for the Tat Tours, and I was in luck with my recent trip to Milan.

Andrea or as he goes by on Instagram @goresoprano is an illustrator, painter and street photographer based in the north of the Italian city. I first noticed Andreas' work at the start of the year when a colourful Totti and Roberto Baggio popped up on my feed just after my quest to Marrakesh to track down the famous tin sign artist of the Red City.

There's a distinct similarity in the naive beauty of both types of work. A folkish drawing style that for me really captures the iconic, colourful, almost holy-like characteristics of some of the legends of the game.

When I asked Andrea about his work he told me that he is heavily inspired by the avant-garde Italian Futurism movement. This movement, which started way back at the very start of the 20th century, also happened to originate in Milan (1909). The Futurismo art form was a celebration of energy and movement and artists at the time were all trying to break away from the traditional stale styles happening across Italy during the same period. Some of the earliest Futurism calcio / football paintings date back to as early as 1913 Gerardo Dottori. Partita di calcio. (1928)

Roberto Marcello Baldessari. Giocatore di Pallone. (1920)

Andrea says he knows how far his technical skills go compared to some of the futurism masters, but he hopes his work captures some of the same movement, after I took some time to learn a bit more about Futurism itself, I can definitely see how this has inspired the way he brings his characters he draws to life. Couple this up with his love of 70s & 80s toy box art and the football fever ingrained in Milano culture, and you have a pretty fun concoction of inspiration to play with.

Andrea with his dad at the San Siro

When I asked Gore what materials he used for his artwork he told me that he didn't complicate things and mentioned that Stabilo highlighter markers which, with their classic square tips, were perfect for creating that classic futurism-style movement. Gore goes on to tell me that instead of using traditional shop-bought paper, he also paints and draws directly onto cardboard that he rescues from the trash. He lives above a kids' clothes and toy shop where packaging is thrown out daily. So all of this free material makes a great canvas for his brightly colored work.

Zola Cagliari Calcio (2003)

When I finally got round to booking my trip to one of Italy's greatest football cities, I got in contact with Andrea about his work. I was expecting all his pieces to be long gone but was surprised and happy to find out that, in actual fact, he had never really thought about selling his work before, so most of his original artwork was still available, and he even had some spare time to paint a custom piece for me of AC Milan’s ‘Brave Heart’ Gennaro Gattuso.