Michele Servadio was born in Italy in 1986. He grew up in a small village in the Veneto countryside. Drawn to painting and drawing from an early age, Servadio attended the Art School in Padua and the University of Visual Arts in Venice. In 2007 he approached the world of tattoos, fascinated by its tradition and cultural phenomenon. He moved to London in 2010.

In his atelier in Hackney Wick, Servadio creates new projects which interconnect the different practices of tattooing, painting, printmaking, photography, and performance art. Merging these diciplines, feeding them back into one another, he creates a unique universe where he is able to explore and describe the human condition and his environment.

The aesthetics of his work is dark and melancholic; it embodies Folklore, expressionism, and the bleakness of a post-industrial scenario.

In 2014 he started to experiment with sound and tattooing. This gave birth to 'Body of Reverbs', a contemporary Ritual combining sound, pain, accupuncture and permanent marks on the body. Body of Reverbs has been presented in the form of live performances and instilations across the UK, Europe, Asia and America.

The synergies created within the Varsi Lab have been the engine behind the collaboration born between Base/34 and Servadio.

This collection of jugs is part of a larger series of artworks called “Paintings from the boat”: an ongoing body of work consisting of small paintings on found frames and objects such as vases and weird artifacts and furniture. 

The subjects depicted are the ones close to my tattoo work and a broader folk imagination. 

Stripped of deeper research these artworks have a free and light approach, dancing on the fence between art and craft.

Each jug comes in a box designed and assembled by Base/34 and screenprinted by 56Fili.