Vanni Mangoni is an Italian visual artist and filmaker who grew up between Italy and the US. After his high-school diploma at Liceo Artistico “A. Passaglia”, in Lucca, Vanni continues his studies at University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, where he graduates in Fine Arts and Cinema/Television in 2010. With a full scholarship for swimming, as a Trojan and Italian National Team member Vanni obtains medals at national and international level, including the first title ever won by an Italian at the US Open (2007, Spring Championship).
From 2011 to 2013 he works in Hollywood, first as a storyboard artist, then as a production designer to later write and direct his own short-films. In 2012 Vanni takes a step back from cinema and focuses on personal art projects such as his popular “Coffee Stains” series.
From 2013 he feels the urge to grow as an artist and as a human being: he leaves Los Angeles and begins backpacking around the world, absorbing the culture of the peoples he meets (especially the First Nation people of North, Central and South America, and Australian Aboriginals). His same curiosity to explore diversity - through different countries and their traditions - is reflected in his art. In fact, it is abroad that most of Vanni’s art works is conceived and created, and every painting is different in style and medium.
2019 marks Vanni’s return behind the camera as a co-director of his first documentary feature film "The Song That Calls You Home" which follows the shamanic arts of the Peruvian indigenous tribe, the Shipibos. At the same time, Vanni is hired as assistant editor for the documentary film "Reborn: Lamar Odom". He is also invited to showcase some of his art works in his first international visionary art exhibit, in Girona, Spain.
In 2020, spent for the most part in Nicaragua working as a painter, Vanni is commissioned a three stories high mural painting by the president of the Italian Olympic Committee, dr. Giovanni Malagò. "Dimensione Divina" now adorns the West wall of the sport club Aquaniene, in Rome. It is a tribute to Olympic Champion and Vanni's ex national team-mate Federica Pellegrini.