Italian artist Giovanni Motta was recently featured in Maddox Gallery’s group exhibition 'Altered Perception'. With an entire floor dedicated to his paintings, the show centred on his emblematic character 'JonnyBoy': a childlike figure suspended between innocence and resilience. Motta’s practice bridges classical tradition, digital innovation, and the emotional power of memory. In this conversation, he reflects on the foundations of his imagery, the role of meditation, and the evolving journey of JonnyBoy across both physical and virtual worlds.
Question: In what ways do traditional art forms influence your practice today?
Giovanni Motta: Classical painting and ancient sculpture remain a constant presence, not as nostalgic echoes but as the foundations of a language that endures through time. The masters taught me light, the gravity of form, and the weight of symbolic gestures. Even when I work with digital tools and pop aesthetics, the architecture of my practice is nourished by that discipline. JonnyBoy, in all his apparent simplicity, is the descendant of a much more complex grammar rooted in tradition.
Q: The 'floating state' recurs in recent pieces. What does that image represent for you?
GM: Suspension is the realm of expectation and wonder. JonnyBoy’s floating is never mere lightness; it is a precarious balance between memory and presence. It captures that in-between state when a memory resurfaces and holds you still; neither fully here, nor entirely elsewhere.
Many Small Colored Dots, 150 x 150cm (2024)
“Once upon a time, there was a boy who decided to jump—not to reach something, but to escape the gravity of expectations. His hair was the color of dreams never fulfilled, and he wore shoes far too big for his desires. The sky wasn’t calling him, yet he trusted it anyway, like only naïve hearts do—those who still believe the air might hold them. The world beneath him was full of things to do, to say, to become. But he floated—silent, absorbed, untouched by anything but his own gesture. He never fell. Nor did he truly rise. He remained there, suspended between the no longer and the not yet, as only real children and disillusioned poets know how to do. And in that moment, the sky became his accomplice and forgot to pull him back down.”
Q: You’ve called meditation a ‘time machine’ to your inner child. How did you discover it, and how does it shape your studio routine?
GM: I turned to meditation out of necessity, to quiet the noise of the world. I discovered it as a portal, a way to reconnect with emotions I thought were lost. In the studio, it becomes a ritual: a silence that opens the inner space from which images emerge. It transforms raw intuition into form, shaping both the rhythm of my day and the emotional charge of my work.
Q: From first emotional spark to finished canvas, what does a typical day in the studio look like?
GM: It begins with a fragment: a memory, an object, an unexpected image. Then comes immersion, gathering signs and visual notes. What follows is hours of silent, almost meditative labour, where thought dissolves and gesture takes over. By evening the canvas stands as a mirror, not only of the work accomplished but of the mood that has traversed it.
Giovanni Motta in his studio, working on Pain Has Messed You Up, 150 x 200 cm (2024)
Q: You describe yourself as both a physical and a virtual artist. Was there a turning point that drew you into digital spaces?
GM: The turning point was realising that the virtual is not ‘elsewhere’, but an extension of reality. When I began working with NFTs and digital environments, I understood that JonnyBoy could exist fluidly, unbound by matter. Since then, I no longer separate the two: painting and digital practice are complementary languages within the same universe.
Q: Which experiences or ideas most consistently fuel your imagination today?
GM: Personal memories, fragments of pop culture, and forgotten everyday objects are my deepest mines. But also manga and anime, which possess a unique ability to evoke archetypal emotions. Each rediscovered object acts as catalyst, a latent energy that propels creation.
Q: In The Plan for the Theft Falls Apart at Dawn, JonnyBoy is surrounded by specific objects. What drove those choices?
GM: Each object is an emotional detonator. They are not stage props but symbols that open gateways to memory. Some are biographical, others belong to collective memory. Their combination generates tension, placing JonnyBoy at the centre of a narrative suspended between play and loss.
The Plan for the Theft Falls Apart at Dawn, 150 x 150 cm (2024)
“Jonny seems as though he has just slipped out of a dream. Around him, a rain of pop relics—dice, safety pins, Russian dolls, fallen ice creams, forgotten superheroes—objects that once held purpose and now vie for the role of memory. Each item orbiting Jonny is a desire disguised as a toy, a vain attempt to trap time inside a plastic capsule. But the plan, alas, has unravelled. Not through fault, but by its very nature. For dawn, as we know, is the most merciless of spies. And so Jonny floats within the chaos of the unfinished, quietly observing the presence of an awakening. The elements, saturated with substance, spiral like a tempest of sensations—a calamity irresistibly drawn to the centre of existence. Layers of memory, one upon the other, complete the journey and define it as a single, indistinguishable instant of life.”
Q: The exhibition 'Altered Perception' explores symbolism and shifting perceptions of space. How do your works contribute to that experience?
GM: My works create a perceptual distortion through the figure of JonnyBoy, who appears as a timeless iconic body. His presence alters space, transforming each environment into a mental theatre. He acts as a catalyst, compelling viewers to see surrounding objects and spaces through the lens of emotional memory.
Q: Across the series, JonnyBoy seems to evolve. What journey is the character on, and how has that progressed so far?
GM: JonnyBoy’s journey is one of survival. He moves through dystopian settings, playgrounds, and landscapes reclaimed by nature. He embodies the abstraction of youth that endures despite time and disillusion. So far his path has been one of self-discovery: from symbolic figure to witness of human resilience. His evolution is also mine, an advance into the future while remaining faithful to origin.
Q: From this body of work, if you had to choose one piece that best captures the story you wanted to tell, which would it be and why?
GM: I would choose Lost Paradise. It embodies the tension between destruction and rebirth, between guilt and hope. In that piece, JonnyBoy becomes not only a character but a universal symbol, a fragile yet eternal point of resistance within a world that attempts to erase him. It is the core of the story I wanted to deliver.
Lost Paradise, 150 x 100 cm (2025)
“There is, at the very heart of ruin, a purest form of poetry—one that is not written in words, but in the gaze. In this painting, JonnyBoy stands as a surviving fragment of what has been erased. He is not a survivor: he is a presence. He is not salvation: he is memory. Before him, the world burns; behind him, there is nothing—except time, failed and fading. The city has exploded, ashes hang suspended, flames still flicker—not out of destruction, but out of vanity. And yet he stands still, his pale, oval face pierced by wonder. A kind of wonder that cannot be learned—only preserved. As if the ultimate meaning of existence lay not in the act of reacting, but in the deeper, more mysterious act of feeling. In the painting Lost Paradise, time truly stops. JonnyBoy is our mute Virgil, our little Orpheus who does not sing, but watches. He is the heart that beats in the final hour before eternal silence. He is innocence that survives—not because it is strong, but because it is necessary. He does not flee the ruins. He walks through them. And with him, so do we.”
Discover Giovanni Motta at Maddox
Through JonnyBoy, Motta invites us into a suspended world where memory, resilience, and play converge. His works blend the timeless weight of tradition with the possibilities of the digital age, offering collectors an entry point into an ever-expanding universe.
