ARCANGELO

The works of Arcangelo, a radical and intimate artist, is based on the feeling of belonging and on the sharing of a cultural heritage, that of the Samnites and the Irpinas, which he knew how to extend and transform, to include the heritages of other places and other peoples, starting in the 1980s with works where the stripped gesture and poor materials such as earth, charcoal and pure pigments transform the landscape into an astonishing vision of abstract but corporeal nature.

For the artist, the earth is an essential landmark to go elsewhere and experience the suggestions and archetypes of places. His works is a stratification of journeys, and develops in cycles, each of which is dedicated to a feeling, a vision, a land touched or new to live, each cycle has its own precise flavor, however with his sign that since the 80s distinguished his works. Since the 1990s, the representation of the territory and the enhancement of its characteristics have also acquired an extremely dreamlike dimension on color.

For the Mazarine Variations Gallery, Arcangelo has designed an exhibition that is radically and handsomely flowery and dramatically woody and supple: “Fiori Irpini”, “Fiori di Croco” and “Ulivi” canvases born in his studio in San Nazzaro in the province of Benevento, , ideal place for the artist, in which he always finds roots for his works. Also on display will be small canvases, "Paesaggi", a dreamy and poetic reference to the pictorial tradition of landscape, revised by Arcangelo, and like small sacred houses, the precious ceramics, "Casa Dogon", that will be the place around which his visionary universe lives, ceramics born from his strong link with the African land, the destination of many of his travels, which, for atmospheres and smells, is so close to this southern Italy which is dear to him.

Arcangelo returns to exhibit in Paris, a city which hosted his works at the Maeght Lelong gallery in 1987 and at the Di Meo gallery in 1996, but not the only exhibitions of the artist in France, we remember in 1991 at the Museum of Modern Art, Refectory of the Jacobins, Toulouse and in 1993 at the Contemporary Art Center La Ferme du Buisson, Marne-la-Vallée, Noisiel.
At the beginning of 2000, the works on canvas Persian Carpets, the terracotta sculptures Amphoras, the Fetishes, the Samnites and the Orti ceramic sculptures were born and long journeys began in the Mediterranean then in Africa, places and men close to the artist for the colors , visions, emotional affinities, capable of being part of his powerful expressive universe.

In 2012, he participated in the Bocconi Art Gallery, Bocconi University, Milan and was present in various group exhibitions of Unicredit Bank acquisitions.
In 2015, he received the Bugatti-Segantini prize for his artistic career and participated in the group exhibition "Passaggi" with the Fondazione Volume! at the MAMC, Museum of Contemporary Art of Saint Etienne and at “Hunger Nach Bildern” Raab Gallery in Berlin.
In addition to the numerous personal and collective exhibitions in the most important Italian and international centers, numerous volumes and monographic books have been published over the years on his art, also in collaboration with various Italian poets, including Alda Merini, Maurizio Cucchi, Maurizio Medaglia .