Vadalà Angelo

Angelo Vadalà was born in Messina, Italy, in 1940. He started painting seven decades ago, when he was only 12.  At the age of 18, Vadalà left Sicily to live and study in Florence, officially to attend university and study architecture. But after two years of study at the Florence University of Architecture, Vadalà found he was distracted by what the many museums of that beautiful city contained, and not by the stone and wood that housed the art. His desire to capture a movement or a moment in time on canvas or in clay, called him from the study of the building of structures. His strongest need was to capture the human form, in all its beauty and majesty, and become a part of the long legacy of Italian artists that came before him. The city of Florence itself became his inspiration; Leonardo Da Vinci, Velàzquez and Caravaggio, his teachers.

From his study of architecture, Vadalà had received a foundation in the art and technique of draftsmanship. Combined with his innate artistic talent and his personal study of art in the museums and churches of Florence, he paid the same scrupulous attention to mastering the techniques of painting, as it applied to the human form.

One example of Vadalà’s discipline and determination to achieve excellence was the enormous time he dedicated to studying hands. He described these early efforts as critical to subsequent artistic success, often saying, “hands have millions of positions, if you are able to draw hands well, you can draw everything”.

At the end of the ‘60’s, he went to New York where he was influenced by the new realism movement and the new American figurative painting style. Over the next decade and a half, he developed his personal style, based on technical perfection and dream themes. In the 1980’s he began to explore neo-classic art, Oriental art and romantic myths.

Today, he is considered one of the best contemporary portrait painters in Italy. At an international level he has painted great figures of the cultural scene, show business and the world of finance, political figures, and the aristocracy of Europe. Some of his subjects have included Cinzano, Rod Stieger, Jonny Hallyday, the President of Senegal.

He has received awards in many art competitions throughout Italy as well as numerous commissions for public works and for the Catholic Church. Vadalà’s work has been included in museum shows throughout his native Italy and in the United States, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Today, Vadalà lives and works in Florence and Milan. He often visits and shows in the United States. His medium is most often oil on canvas, although he often works in pastel and pencil.

While Vadalà continues to take portrait commissions and paint unique and masterful figurative works, he has recently begun a series of city scenes in his precise and original style. The cityscapes are magical and extraordinary, yet immediately identifiable. They capture a light and mood that is timeless and beautiful, allowing the viewer to be transported to an idyllic place, based on reality that is better than any dream. The world he creates in his paintings is a place we would all like to be.

PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS

1965 Galleria d’Arte Arno- Florence (Italy)

1966 Galleria Flori- Montecatini (Italy)

1967 Hotel Park Villa- Fiesole (Italy)

1972 Galleria d’Arte Fiorentina- Florence (Italy)

1974 Galleria Zabert- Torino (Italy)

1976 Bottega di Cimabue- Florence (Italy)

1977 Istituto Edizioni Artistiche Fratelli Alinari- Florence (Italy)

1977 Helen Brue Gallery- Venice (California, USA)

1978 Galleria L’Incontro- Modena (Italy)

1978 Centro Artistico Nernier- Douvaine (France)

1980 Galleria Foresto- Ginevra (Switzerland)

1980 Loggia Rucellai- Florence (Italy)

1981 Palazzo Strozzi- Florence (Italy)

1981 Galleria Vecu- Anversa (Belgium)

1983 Galleria Il Segno Contemporaneo- Brescia (Italy)

1985 Galleria Camino Real- Boca Roton (Florida, USA)

1986 Galleria Woeller-Paquet- Francoforte (Germany)

1986 Curzon Gallery- Boca Raton (Florida,USA)

1987 Galleria Interarte- Milano (Italy)

1990 Curzon Gallery- Boca Raton (Florida,USA)

1990 Galleria Oriente-Occidente- Marrakesh (Morocco)

1991 Boulevart Gallery – Ginevra (Switzerland)

1994 Galleria Bab-Kebir- Rabat (Morocco)

1998 Richard Thomas Galleries- Park City (Utah, USA)

1998 Richard Thomas Galleries- Laguna Beach (California, USA)

1998 Richard Thomas Galleries- Carmel (California, USA)

1998 Rocca Ariostesca- Castenuovo di Garfagnana (Italy)

1999 Richard Thomas Galleries- Park City (Utah, USA)

 

COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS

1979 Arte Fiera- Bologna (Italy) 1979 Galleria Bergamini- Milano  (Italy)

1979 Accademia Pontano- Napoli (Italy)

1980 Galleria Civita d’Arte Moderna- Palermo (Italy)

1980 Boca Roton Centre for the Arts- Boca Roton (Florida, USA)

1981 Gallery at Tunberry- Miami (Florida, USA)

1981 H.H. Leonards- Washington (Washington D.C., USA)

1981 Scaff and Krych- Cleveland (Ohio, USA)

1982 Arte 13-Basilea (Switzerland)

1982 Palazzo dei Vescovi- Pistoia (Italy)

1982 Palazzo Strozzi- Florence (Italy)

1982 Art Expò- New York City (New York, USA)

1982 Art Expò- Chicago (USA) 1983 Expo Arte- Bari (Italy)

1983 Art Expò- Dallas (Texas, USA)

1983 Art Expò- New York City (New York, USA)

1983 Galleria J.Poole- New York City (New York, USA)

1983 Rotary Club- Assisi (Italy)

1984 Basilica di S. Francesco- Assisi (Italy)

1985 Galleria d’Arte Forni- Bologna (Italy)

1985 Arte Fiera- Bologna (Italy)

1986 Galleria della Rocca- Angera (Italy)

1992 Museum of Modern Art- New York City (New York, USA)

1995 Istituto Italiano di Cultura- Colonia (Germany)

1996 Art Expò- New York City (New York, USA)

1998 Art Expò- New York City (New York, USA)

2002 Phillips Gallery- Carmel (California, USA)

2007 The Red Shirt of the Mille: Works of art for Garibaldi on the bicentenary of his birth- Consiglio Regionale della Toscana, Palazzo Cerretani – Florence (Italy)

2007 Mai Dire Mao: Servire il pop – Mercantinfiera- Parma (Italy)