Arcangelo: Lunga notte di stelle Sannite

On Thursday, the 18th of November, 2004, beginning at 6:30 PM, a new one-man exhibit of Arcangelo will be inaugurated at Lorenzelli Arte. With this new exhibit at Lorenzelli Arte, this artist closes, at least ideally, his pictorial cycle Sanniti (Samnites) on which he has been working since the summer of 2001. Arcangelo's pictorial cycles must not be interpreted as parts of different projects, each quite distinct from the other, but rather as a continuum from which, from time to time, forms and signs spring up and reveal themselves with wonderful suggestiveness. Arcangelo's paintings, in fact, express themselves as a dense sequence of images, signs and splashes of colour, where elements enter and leave the scene only momentarily, and where cultural suggestions and echoes of the origins act as a background to this theatre of highly personal poetic feelings. Specifically, the Samnites are men born in Samnio, Arcangelo's own birthplace, memorable figures the artist draws on for his interpretation of history, of the tradition of his family and of his people, fully investigating the “iconographic” materials typical of his motherland, which in fact have for years constituted the unmistakable key to his painting. On view are approximately 30 paintings with mixed techniques, on canvas, all expressly prepared for this exhibition, as well as a large metal sculpture: Palo Sannita (Samnite Pole), approx., ten wax Teste Sannite (Samnite Heads) and a group of ten bronze “snakes”, Un mondo di vipere (A world of vipers). Available in the Gallery will be the catalogue of the exhibition, Lorenzelli Arte No. 110, with the text by Ivan Quaroni which fully illustrates all the phases of the cycle, as well as a rich assortment of bio-bibliographical material, and approximately 30 illustrations in colour. You can go to our website www.lorenzelliarte.com where you may see the on-line show. Biographical notes: Arcangelo was born at Avellino in 1956. He attended the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome and then moved to Milan. He held his first one-man exhibits at Tanit in Munich, at Buchman in Basel, at Janine Mautsch in Cologne, at Harald Behm in Hamburg, and at Klaus Lupke in Frankfurt. In the middle of the eighties he participated in various collective exhibits among which: “XI Quadriennale di Roma”, “Prospect ‘86” at the Kunstverein und Shirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt. He worked on the Altari cycle and, between 1989 and 1990, he began working on the Pianeticycle. In 1991 he presented the works of his Dogon cycle at the Kunstverein in Bonn. In 1992 he exhibited at the Modern Art Museum of Toulouse in the Réfectoir des Jacobins and held one-man exhibits at the Centre of Contemporary Art La Ferme du Buisson at Marne-la-Vallée, at the Municipal Gallery of Contemporary Art at St. Priest, at the Kodama Gallery in Osaka, and at the Gentili Gallery in Florence in 1993. He exhibited his Stanze at the Galleria Otto in Bologna in 1994. Between 1993 and 1994 he exhibited at the Fukuyama Museum of Art, at the Musée d'Art Moderne, Réfectoire des Jacobins, Toulouse and at the FRAC Midi-Pyréneés. He worked on the cycle of paintings the Misteri. Between 1996 and 1997 he exhibited at the Tanit Gallery, at the Otto in Bologna, at the Janine Mautsch in Cologne, and at the Bernard Cats in Brussels. In 1998 he inaugurated a one-man exhibit at the Civica Raccolta del Disegno in Salò and started on a small cycle of the Verso Oriente (Towards the East), following which he presented, at the Caffè Florian in Venice, his Anfore (Amphoras) in terracotta. In 1999 he won the first Suzzara Prize and began to work on the cycle of the Tappeti Persiani (Persian Rugs). In 2000 Lorenzelli Arte exhibited an Arcangelo one-man show, “Persian Rugs, Sarcophagus, Anphoras”. In the same year, along with Pizzi Cannella, Arcangelo worked on his exhibit “A Quattromani” at the Galleria Otto in Bologna, and took part in the collective exhibit “Generazione Astratta” (Abstract Generation) at the Fondazione Bandera. In 2001 he started on the new cycle of the Feticci (Fetishes), then painted the Sanniti (Samnites), and created the Orti in ceramic. In May 2002 he took part in the Lorenzelli Arte collective exhibit “Bianco Italiano” together with Nunzio, Dessi, and Pizzi Cannella. 2003 saw the publication of the important monographs Arcangelo Opere 1983/2002 edited by Quattroemme, Perugia and I monotipi edited by Papiro Arte in Venice.