Maurizio Savini

Artist Maurizio Savini, based in Rome, is a sculpture artist who creates all of his life-size pieces entirely out of chewing gum. He uses thousands of cut, molded, and chewed pieces in every design to achieve desired shapes. These amazing and detailed chewing gum sculptures have sold for up to $60,000 each. When asked about his medium, Savini had this to say:

"The reason I like to use chewing gum is because it seemed to me an amazingly versatile material compared to those used by the traditional arts such as painting… I work the chewing gum when it is warm and manipulate it with a knife just like some traditional material like clay. The most important step is the fixing of the sculptures with formaldehyde and antibiotic."

Title and Year Unknown, Chewing Gum, Approx. Life Size 

To me, all of Savini’s sculptures have a very childlike and playful quality to them, regardless of the subject, because of their bright pink color and chewing gum texture. One I particularly like is the piece where a bear is looking through the peep hole in a door. It appears curious and inquisitive and I can’t help but wonder what it might be seeing through there. His pieces all move in the direction of being representational, especially the animals, but his human figures tend to appear more pieced-together and geometric in fashion due to the way he chooses to treat the skin on their faces. I enjoy the representational more because I feel like it’s more surprising to see something like that made out of chewing gum than the puppet -like look that his figures take on.

Title and Year Unknown, Chewing Gum, Approx. Life Size

Title and Year Unknown, Chewing Gum, Approx. Life Size