About Francesca Dalla Benetta
I was born in Florence, Italy, in a hot summer day.
My childhood was filled with a grandmother that takes me around all the museums of the city and tells me all the wonderful stories of the life of great Renaissance artists. And when I’m not with grandma, I spent long afternoons drawing, painting or making small sculptures.
I was told that at the age of 4 years I made a series of portraits so impressively resembling to my entire family, that everybody pictured me as a future great famous artist.
Years later, when choosing high school, art school seems the most natural thing. Unfortunately mom and dad do not agree. What kind of a job is to be an artist? You don’t want to starve doing portraits in the church square!
Then, having no choice, I attended five years of Science High School, followed by the University, the Faculty of Physics. I’ve got the best grades but I’m not happy at all.
Unexpectedly in the mid of my studies and against the wishes of the parents, I decide out of the blue to leave the university to try to enter the prestigious Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, the secular Brera. The summer of 1999 begins my biggest and most challenging dream: studying art. So excited!
After four years, I graduated. With a trajectory of experimental research in the field of photography and video art, and no idea about my future, I started to fear my parents`prophecy… so I decide to get practical and devote myself to the world of cinema, specializing in set design and special make up.
I move to Rome in order to continue working in a special effects studio. A new adventure was beginning: I was lucky enough to work in is Black Dahlia of Brian De Palma as my very first project.
In 2006, the production of Apocalypto by Mel Gibson invited me to work in Mexico. Again, I picked up the ball and moved to the other side of the world full of expectation. I was growing! I sharpened my skills as a sculptor working for several years in local film projects.
But the rebellion that made me stop Physics and the curiosity that leads me always to explore new things, made me once again change direction: I decide to dedicate myself to sculpture and in 2011 I had my first solo show in Mexico City, followed by many other exhibitions in international galleries and museums. Joy Joy Joy!
My work is now part of numerous private collections and has been reviewed by countless newspapers, trade magazines and television programs. Meanwhile I started teaching special effects and sculpture, finding another great love, education: I have a great art education system based on practical presencial classes and online course for who lives far away.
And, more excited every day of my adventurous journey, I go one step after the other towards new achievements!
PD: in case you was wondering… my parents stopped picturing me doing portraits in the church square a few years ago… and me too!
