Provenance:
Galleria Studio Dieci, Naples, as stamp on the reverse
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Nino Longobardi was born in 1953 in Naples. The artistic association with the curator Lucio Amelio, started in 1968, makes him known in the Neapolitan art scene and opens a human and professional bond that will continue until the death of the gallery owner in 1994. After having exhibited in 1978 at the studio of Gianni Pisani, the artist develops a pictorial and figurative research in which the male human figure becomes one of the recurring themes in his production: he prefers above all the technique of drawing on paper and on wall, but also shows a strong interest in sculpture. The figure is essential, rendered with a few synthetic strokes and a reduced color gamut (gray black, some earth colors), ideal shape and starting point for any figurative representation. He remains very attached to Naples, the city where he still has his studio, at Palazzo Tarsia:
I like this balance between two worlds, when I’m too in Naples I can escape to Spain. But then it often happens that nostalgia destroys me, at night I dream of the piperno of Naples, piazza Mercato... and so I come back. When I’m in Naples, it seems strange, but I rest».
(Taken from Mirella Armiero, interview with Nino Longobardi for Corriere del Mezzogiorno, 2022)