My name is Ivan Cavini and I was born on March 8th, 1970 in Milan, Italy.

Since I was six, I have been living in Dozza, a little medieval village in a house under the hills.

As a child, I flipped through many art books from the world’s greatest illustrators, such as Boris Vallejo, Chris Achilleos, Franìk Frazetta, Stephen Hickman, Les Edwards, Alan Lee,  further which I have grown my passion for drawing and fantastic worlds. Today I am a freelance artist and I carry out the profession of illustrator and set designer, specializing in the creation of digital and traditional fantasy art.

Since I was twenty years old I have been producing illustrations and sets for publishing houses, museums, animation studios and communication agencies. I have collaborated with some publishers, including: Walt Disney Italia, Rainbow SpA, Tabula Games, Rcs Libri, Franco Panini Ragazzi, Delos Book, Sergio Bonelli Editore, Eterea Publishing, Strip Art Comics and many others.

I have exhibited in national museums, public buildings, galleries and trade fairs, in Italy (Rome, Bologna, Ancona, Milan, Lucca ...) but also in Switzerland with permanent exhibition’s of many paintings and sculptures (Greisinger Museum of Jenins), Poland (Gdańsk Green Gate, City Arsenal in Wroclaw) and Japan (Itabashi Art Museum in Tokyo, Izutsuya, Takashimaya and Honjin Memorial Art Museum), although in the last few years I have had no more time to prepare original works for personal exhibitions.

I really like animated cinema, comics and TV series. Occasionally I work with the Studio Mistral to create short and medium-length films that have won over 200 awards in competitions and festivals. The last collaboration was Mani rosse: a stop motion short film directed by Francesco Filippi.

Nowadays, because of my commitment to Tolkien inspired Art, I am becoming more and more popular among the general public. Being considered that such a commitment is not just limited to illustration and painting, but even in realizing scenographic installations, giant statues and decorations, such as those found in the Greisinger Museum, the Swiss museum of Jenins which hosts the largest collection of inspired art by Middle-Earth, for which I am the Creative Director.

In 2015 I received a thanksgivin award from Lucca Comics and Games, an annual comic book and gaming convention in Lucca, Tuscany, the largest comics festival in Europe, and the second biggest in the world after the Comiket. Beside as above, during the same year, my limited-edition illustrated book MIDDLE ARTBOOK Disegnare e costruire la terra di Mezzo was published.  In 2017 I created the cover and the playing cards of the board game BARBARIANS the invasion; and in 2018 I also created the artbox limited edition LEGENDARIUM – by collecting 10 pieces among old lithographs prints, inspired by the books of J.R.Tolkien. 

Currently I am the artistic director of FantastiKa, the biennial of the fantastic art that takes place in Dozza (Bo) as well as one of the Italian fantasy masters who illustrated LORDS FOR THE RING, the prestigious calendar published by Eterea publishing with the collaboration of Lucca Comics and Games and AIST (Tolkien Society of Italy), being also part among the founding members.

In my private life I am fond of Native Americans and I am currently making some graphite illustrations for an artbook about Lakota Sioux, in collaboration with the photo-reporter Alessio Vissani.

I love spending time with my children Andrea and Luna, skating on the street, going to the cinema and watching TV series. 

One day I hope to resume my role as a Black Belt Instructor of Karate.