CONTENTS
Page One:
Adriano Colangelo: Fantasy Themes
Page Two:
José Pelegrina-Vissepo: Indigenous Peoples of
the Americas
Diógenes Giorlandino Turns His Talents to
Pyrography on Gourds
Page Three:
Vadim Grozavu: Photorealism
Book Review: Gourd Pyrography by Jim
Widess
Mystery Corner: Another Ball Hughes Pyrograph?
Mark Hale: From His Workshop
Italian Adriano Colangelo describes his background as somewhat complex. It began in Naples, Italy, where he grew up receiving a "strict, European education, thank God." For his higher education, he went on to study in Rome at the State Academy of Theater, Cinematography, and Design. Besides his education, Adriano attributes the courage that he found in the hard experience of the war as one more important aspect shaping the person he has come to be.
By 1955, Adriano began participating in exhibitions. His first show was in a gallery in Naples. Two years later he had another--that time in Rome. By 1959 Adriano had his third show--in his own atelier (studio) in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He had taken a position in Sao Paulo as an art history professor at the Contemporary School of Art.
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Allegory |
In the following nine years, Adriano had already shown his paintings in 14 exhibitions when, in 1964, in what was already his fourth exhibition in that year, he began showing his pyrographs on wood. This is the medium Adriano described as
Four years later, he was introducing pyrographic works on paper, and by 1970, he had added pyrographs on velvet to his offerings.
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Dance of the
Deva |
The year 1971 brought two more events, the second of which showed five of Adriano's pyrographs in a prestigious traveling exhibition called the Program of Current Brazilian Art in Engraving and Design (Programa de Arte Atual Brasileira de Gravura e Desenho). With that exhibition, Adriano's works toured many of the principal art museums in South America, culminating in the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
In 1972 Adriano was invited to participate in an
important international exhibition entitled
"Graphics in Fantasy Art" in the Gallery of
Modern Art "Il Fauno" in Verona, Italy, with
12 pyrographs on paper shown alongside the works of
several great international masters including Salvador
Dali, Giorgio di Chirico, and Pablo Picasso.
Adriano's exhibit was unique among all of those in
that it was the only one with work in pyrography.
This for Adriano Colangelo was a landmark event in his
career--one that resulted in his works going to
galleries in Paris, Milan, Basel, Verona, Rome,
Boston, Washington D.C., Rio de Janeiro, and Sao
Paulo.
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Deva |
To feed his fertile imagination for the fantastical,
Adriano has borrowed from the richly colorful deities
of Hinduism, many of which (visually) represent the
elements of Nature, lending themselves to an ever more
meaningful part of Adriano's existence and art. The
figure called "Deva," which appears often in
his pyro paintings, is named from a word in Sanskrit
that is the Hindu equivalent of "Angel."
"Regarding the theme pervading my work,"
Adriano Colangelo says, "I must confess that ever
since I was a little kid, I always had a great love
for Nature, her mysteries, and her harmony that is so
complex. Next I must confess that I have explored and
continue to explore, each time with a greater and
deeper reverence, the Mystery of Creation, which makes
me, at the age of 67, very happy."
Besides his native Italian, Adriano became fluent in
Portuguese and Spanish, and is presently studying
English. He talked about his life in Brazil and also
time spent in Argentina. He explained that, for a
European, experiencing the exuberance of flora and
fauna and the intensity of life in South America is
wondrous. He referred to the lands in that part of
the world as "magical."
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The Deva of the
Night |
If you thought that Adriano Colangelo kept busy
participating over his 45-year art career in more than
70 exhibitions (with mostly very large works),
consider that he simultaneously taught art history in
five different schools during that period and gave
nearly 80 conferences and lectures in series. He also
wrote many published essays of his own and
collaborated in editing many others. He even has
scientific publications to his credit--he illustrated
five of those. His C.V. has lists of his activities
that are pages long. His latest exhibition was only
last year.
View more of Adriano Colangelo's works on his website
www.adrianocolangelo.com.br
and in the E-Museum
of Pyrographic Art.
Adriano's obvious delight in using the concept of
angels in his fantastical (pyrographical)
"flights" perhaps is linked to his own
person and his last name Colangelo, which, translated
from the Italian, means "with the angel."
He sums up his positive outlook, active participation
in and view of life:
"What a strange experience, mine: In the War
I learned to look with serenity in the face of Death,
only to later, through the miracle of Art, Culture,
and Gaia Mother Earth, to look with profound joy and
gratitude in the face of Life."
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2002, Kathleen M. Garvey Menéndez, all rights reserved.
