BIOGRAPHY   OF   ARMANDO SANTELLI

Armando Santelli was born in San Severo ( Foggia ) on Novembre 25, 1962. He graduated from the “Accademia di Belle Arti” of Brera, in Milan . His work has been shown in both personal and collective exhibitions.
He lives and works in Bergamo .

e-mail :  arte@santelli.it      web :  www.santelli.it

Art Study: 2, Santuario dell’Addolorata Avenue
24124 Berngamo (BG) Italy
 

PRESENTATION

After the “Pazzi” (Crazy) and “Serialkiller” phases, IOCiborg is my new expressive stage that inquires into the relationship and the logic between human being and technology. It is an expressive path that arises and develops from the inside and through a number of readings. Kind of a personal feeling of the new digital reality, where each “Person” wears their own “Code”, like marked skin, evidence of their new global condition swinging between “HomoVidens” and “HomoCyber”.   
('06 Santelli)

PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS

Milan 2005

"La Tecnocomunicazione" (The Telecommunication) "Spazio Archè" Gallery
works of art from 2002 to 2005
by Fulvia Tinelli

Milan 2002 
"L'Anima e il Suo Codice" la comunicazione infranta (The Soul and Its Code – The Broken Communication)
Biblioteca Società Umanitaria (Humanitarian Society Library), works of art from 1993 to 2002 
Presenting folder by ANTONELLO NEGRI
Exhibition organization by Fulvia Tinelli
Complimentary opening speech by FLAVIO CAROLI
Supported by the Lombardia Region and the Milan Town Council and Province

Bergamo 1993
"DeformAzione" (DeformAtion) Cultural Center "Il Forno"
Paintings and graphics from 1991 to 1883

COLLECTIVE  EXHIBITIONS

Rome 2007

"L’ALTRO / IO" (The other me) Domus Sessoriana,

by Antonietta Campilongo
Artist presentation by Ida Mitrano in the catalogue

Alessandria 2006
Invitation to the "6^ Biennale Arte Contemporanea" (“6^th Biannual Contemporary Art Exhibition”).
"Palazzo Guasco", Ala del Principe. 
"Project by Angioletta Firpo",
Supported by the Alessandria Town Council and Province and the Piemonte Region

Milan 2006
" La Nuova Scena Urbana " (“The New Urban Scene”) Previtali Gallery  
Presenting folder by Alessandra Redaelli

Milan 2004
In the final at the "Premio Arte '04 mensile della "G. Mondadori"
(“2004 Art Award - G. Mondadori monthly review”) among the first nine positions of the graphic section over two thousand artists attending.

Milano 1995
"Percorsi d'Arte" (“Artistic Paths”)"IL Cannocchiale" Gallery
Artist Presentation by Carlo Franza in the catalogue.

Marbella (Spain) 1995
"Itinerarios de Arte"  (“Artistic Paths”) “El Catalejo" Art Gallery
Artist presentation by J.M. Valles President of the “ Andaluza de Criticos de Arte” Association, in the catalogue.

Ravenna 1985
Premio Nazionale d'Incisione "Ugonia e Morselli" (Engraving National Prize)
upon recommendation of the “Accademia di Belle Arti “Brera” of Milan.

San Severo (Foggia) 1985
"La Pietra in Cielo"  (“The Stone in the Sky”) Gallery d'Arte Moderna Comunale (Municipal Modern Art Gallery)
Organization by the Foggia Visual Arts Laboratory
Artist presentation by Luciana Zingarelli in the catalogue.

San Severo (Foggia) 1980
First Prize Golden Medal V Mostra Biennale di Pittura (The Fifth Biannual Paintings Exhibition)
Galleria d'Arte Moderna Comunale (Municipal Modern Art Gallery)

San Severo (Foggia) 1978
First Prize Golden Medal IV Mostra Biennale di Pittura (The Fourth Biannual Paintings Exhibition)
Galleria d'Arte Moderna Comunale (Municipal Modern Art Gallery)

CRITICS

Valeria S. Lombardi
artist review  2007
A bang, a coming through a doorway, or a glimmer of senses; no matter how, we are captivated by the soaring, all-knowing, accurate art of Armando Santelli. A reflection from the past with a modern shade. A constant come-and-go, almost stunning and soothing that kind of longing for what art used to be. The artist himself admits to pay a special attention to a “New Metaphysics”. And, as a matter of fact, you can feel the silence, the waiting, the metaphysical floating, like a thunder in the darkness of sounds. The “SMS: Millmenso se 6 con ME” (SMS: I feel all lit up inside if U R with Me) work of art is where you can mainly perceive this kind of timeless. It has been one of the most superior work ever exhibited, compared to many other artists. Look at his special talent of combining more and different historical moments of visual arts in one imaginary square. And again, the remarkable skill of the always-chosen-and-never-at-random details, such as the wrinkled paper and the red handwriting in the background. It leads me beyond a metaphysical heritage, near that something that long ago was the German “New Objectivity” during the 30s in the Twentieth Century. Take another moment to look at the Santelli's “X Sarah Games”; and you will see how much it recalls by similarity the Otto Dix's “Alla bellezza” (To the Beauty). This is how Santelli shows us the contemporariness of the Twenty First Century living: from microchips in a very well shaved woman's head to a bar-code instead of a military identification badge. Armando Santelli's gaze can even be a glimpse of the becoming when no human being would be there but only machines, or even better only robots.       

 VALERIA S. LOMBARDI  
Graduated from Contemporary Art
at the Università Statale of Milan

2002   Presentation of Antonello Negri
The Soul and Its Code the broken communication.... 
2002 Sala Biblioteca, Società Umanitaria di Milano
opere dal 1993 al 2002

In the last ten years Santelli's works are near a figuration area as they say vital again after a long digression to the service of mental working, especially in Italy. The thought , in his case, posses on a style of traditional artistic communication, the graphic art, cleverly applied to the most elementary support on which the designer painter recurs (although crumbled, then is on allusion visually  very efficecions to the idea of consumption). The drawings of this exclusion reveal a northern influence rather thean mediterranean one. One of the theme often recurs throughout Santelli's work, "meat and iron", arises in the years of the new German objectivity, when men and machine began to show sinister nossings, the same subject, in Germany, started again and developed during the sixthes, especially in Berlin. I think we have to look in this direction to give to Santelli's work some historie co-ordinates and tendency. Pike many works of the artists in theat ambit, most characters are surramded by machine, in production settings both obsolete (Hai sistemato i bicchieri?) and technological (Spari Tu o Sparo Io ?). But it's obvious that family backgrand (Aspirante Parricida), rural backgrand (Raptus) and no places (Graziato, Senza Pietà) are only remainders of mechanical, virtual communication (or, obviansly, no communication).  In the big drawings"the machine" is a continuos bass you can listen even if you can't see it, but it gives the rhythm. The characters he draws don't follow the rhythm but the nature, their nature, like M, The Dusseldorf monster Fritz Lang's legendary film (we are still in Germany, it isn't a chance). What can he do - Peter Lorre wonders in the film- if his nature is in conflict with good manners of other people, with the imposed manners snited to the others but not to him? There is notting he can do; and give him the bar code is due to him.

Prof.   Antonello Negri 2002

TITLES: WORKS OF ART BY ARMANDO SANTELLI

"Galatea 2.2" 2007
(78 x 90) cm: mixed technique on reinforced with canvas and wrinkled paper.

"Software: energia assoluta " 2008
( 70 x 70) cm: lead (intesa come grafite/mina) and ink on reinforced with canvas and wrinkled paper.

"Elena 2.2" 2006
(66 x 80,5) cm: lead and ink on reinforced with canvas and wrinkled paper.

"Sms:Millumenso se 6 con Me" 2006  (SMS: I feel all lit up inside if U R with Me)
(160 x 110) cm: lead, ink and pastel on wrinkled paper.

Chat: "Arcobaleno e Inzinzak" 2004 (Rainbow and Inzinzak)
diptych 100 x 50 cm (base model 50 x 50 cm ):
lead and ink on reinforced with canvas and wrinkled paper.

"X Sarah Games" 2004
( 84 x 84) cm: lead and ink on reinforced with canvas paper.

"Post-Umano" 2005 (Post-human 2005)
(114 x 74) cm: lead and ink on reinforced with canvas and wrinkled paper.

"L' Intelligenza Connettiva 2003 “Linking Intelligence 2003”
(162 x 115) cm: mixed technique on wrinkled paper.

"IL Bacio di Erika e Omar" 2002 “Erika and Omar Kiss 2002”
(100 x 70) cm: lead and ink on reinforced with canvas and wrinkled paper.

"Audience 02: EvaEva" 2004
(cloneid.com)
( 160 x 110) cm: lead and ink on reinforced with canvas and wrinkled paper.

"Spari Tu o Sparo IO ?!" 1998 (You Shoot or I Shoot) 1998
(162 x 124) cm: lead and ink on reinforced with canvas and wrinkled paper.

"Da Vicino Vicino, Nessuno è Normale " 2007     (From a close look, Nobody looks Normal
(50 x 70) cm: lead and ink on reinforced with canvas and wrinkled paper.

"Nei Dintorni di Van Gogh" 1996 (In the surroundings of Van Gogh”
(50 x 70) cm: oil painting on canvas

"Pazza N° 033" 1996 (Crazy No. 033)
(24 x 33) cm: lead and ink on reinforced with canvas and wrinkled paper.