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Welcome to our Artist of the Month feature for August, and congratulations to Cinzia Castellano for being our selected artist.
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Hi Cinzia - can you tell us a little about yourself, and how you got started as an artist?
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My father was an artist and a dedicated teacher; therefore it was almost obvious to be involved in painting from an early age.
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I have sustained (with some chaotic arguments) his visual language that was very much related to the Abstract movement, especially of the 50s and 60s.
It still represents to me the vocabulary that is more familiar and congenial to the subject matter of my work.
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Back in Florence, where I was born, I have also paralleled my painting activity with Radio broadcasting. And one of the reasons why my visual work has evolved so much since I moved to London (in 1995) is due to the initial inevitable limits in my verbal expression that I had encountered by engaging in a different language. A sort of blessing in disguise, I guess.
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Now I am a full time painter and my work has been sold all over the world in so many places that I am still planning to visit.
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What are you favourite subjects to paint?
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My paintings are very much related to emotions, observations, random thoughts and mind pollution that one might have (or, at least, that I have). Hence, the choice of pure abstract compositions: their total detachment from any obvious and external land/city/interior-scape or figures, gives space to a sort of mental and sensual reverie, and hopefully, may trigger lots of questions and doubts.
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The main attempt is to stimulate and open the doors to visual and mental activities that transcend cognitive limits.
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Do you have any advice for aspiring artists, or for those new to art?
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Allow mistakes to happen and do not get fixed in pursuing anything. Leave the possibilities wide open. Discovering your own style to communicate through visual art is a personal intimate journey: be curious and flexible. Go and see exhibitions of art that you might not even remotely like.
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But never, ever, betray what you feel right for you to paint with forceful requests for “market” reasons. You may sell the painting, but you will loose your self-respect; it is your choice, really.
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What do you hope people see in your art?
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Possibly nothing that can be describable.
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If people become fully aware of their instinctual and intellectual reactions to a painting, despite its apparent inscrutability, it is already a major achievement; both for me and for the viewer.
But I also hope that some of them might understand Woody Allen when he says: “Life doesn’t imitate Art; it imitates bad television”.
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Who are your favourite artists, and are there any works in particular which have inspired you?
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Being born in Florence does already help to be inevitably sensitive and accustomed to Art…
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So many artists have been a stimulus not only or specifically for their style, but mainly for the questions that they have triggered in me with their works: De Staël, Fontana, Burri, Manzoni, Dubuffet (mainly his “walls” series), Kiefer, Ben Nicholson, Lanyon, Twombly, to name just a few.
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But to me the definitive piece that represents the start (or the end, according to mood) of everything is undoubtedly “Concetto Spaziale – Waiting” by Lucio Fontana.
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What painting or work of art do you wish you had produced?
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My next one. Starting again after one painting is finished or an exhibition set up, feels like an impossible task sometimes.
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Apart from your portfolio at artfair365.co.uk, how do you promote your work - are you a member of any societies, and do you have any exhibitions planned?
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My lively and independent temperament clashes with any sectarian Group or whatever attempts to define and often limits things, especially if they ask money for the privilege. I have got no time for ego trips, and my idea of an “artists’ Group” requires a certain degree of empathy and wit that is rare (but not impossible) to find.
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My relationship with galleries is usually based on temporary agreements. Nowadays, many retail galleries rarely have an intellectual approach to Art, and as soon as I hear “it’s not uplifting” I run off. I do paintings: I am not a Prozac provider.
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Moreover, because of my constant travelling, it would be quite difficult to commit consistently to any of them. I did numerous shows with some “Artists’ Societies” or “Artists’ run galleries”, but now I’d rather participate only for occasional events.
Nevertheless, I still exhibit in many venues in London and also abroad by invitation or by the desire to see my work in a specific place. Exhibiting in Florence, for example, provides a wonderful challenge given the local fixation for classical Art.
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This Summer, I have also been invited for a solo-show in Portugal by the Centro de Cultura de Sao Lourenco (still going on until mid-August).
From September I will start a collaboration with Galleria Poliedro in Trieste and then in October, I will be in a group show (Art for Youth) at the Mall Galleries in London.
Next place across a Continent will be my Open Studio in New York in December, where I occasionally go to paint.
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From your own portfolio, which are your favourite 3 artworks?
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Exegesis, No. 22 and When Mornings Look Like Eggs.
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Click here to view Cinzia's portfolio.
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Click here to view our Artist of the Month for July - John Bird.
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Click here to view our Artist of the Month for June - Anthony Caruana.
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Click here to view our Artist of the Month for May - Clem Spencer.
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