Have some art with your dinner this Spring at Emirates Palace, which is pairing Italian cuisine with the decorative paintings of Amedeo Tremigliozzi.
If Italy is known for one thing, it’s food. If it’s known for two things, it’s food and art. So it’s a no-brainer to imagine that the two might work well together. And surprise, surprise, at Emirates Palace, they do.
‘A Pictoral Orchestration,’ an exhibition of work by Italian artist Amedeo Tremigliozzi, will be on display from now until May 10 at Mezzaluna restaurant in Emirates Palace. The show is curated by Kurt Blum, the general manager of Swiss Art Gate UAE, and will feature 18 of Amedeo’s colourful and vibrant acrylic paintings.
Born in Benevento, Italy, in 1973, Amedeo found his passion for art at a young age. He says, ‘Ever since I was a child, I always had an attitude and affinity for drawing.’ A lover of all things he could find around him in nature, Amedeo enjoyed spending hours outdoors noticing the colours and shapes of the animals and trees.
Amedeo studied at the School of Art Benevento and later at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples, where he was drawn to ceramics and pottery. In 2000, he began painting on ceramics. This delicate practice contributed to the decorative style that is characteristic of his paintings.
Inspired by the way natural elements such as earth, water and fire can give life to a resistant and delicate material like pottery, Tremigliozzi began his career working with ceramics. Then he started painting on the objects. The practice of painting on ceramics requires a gentle, intricate touch and sensitivity to the shape of the form. Furthermore, the artist must be able to understand how the shape of the form will affect the look of the design.
Amedeo points out that when you are decorating a ceramic object, it is nearly impossible to delete a design so when he moved on to painting on canvas, his technique was so refined that he found creating the involved designs that decorate his paintings easy.
Looking at Amedeo’s paintings is a joy to behold. The vibrant colours and carefully illustrated designs carry the eye around the canvases, which are peppered with hidden illustrations and cultural references, like faces and numbers. The paintings are an aesthetic dream come true and it is no wonder Amedeo credits his family, and children in particular, with being the motivation for his cheerful works.
He says, ‘My goal is to create a relationship with the viewer through my decorations, to convey a sense of wellbeing and joy in my work.’ The work reflects this intent in its bright playfulness. It would be childlike if it weren’t so impressively sophisticated.
In addition to finding inspiration from nature and his family, Amedeo looks to other artists to inform his work. Amedeo admires the work of Nino Caruso, whose clay sculptures use rigid geometric forms in a way that counters the organic nature of the material. As for his paintings, Amedeo is inspired by the work of the late Jean-Michel Basquiat, who often used bright colours in his playful, graffiti-like paintings.
The work on display illustrates this passion for colour and detail. Each piece reflects Amedeo’s patterned style that incorporates perfect circles and rigid straight lines balanced with decorative, swirling shapes. But despite these similarities, the vibrant, colourful backgrounds and different layouts and sizes of the canvases give each work its own identity and character. It all makes for a delicious exhibition.
Daily, 12.30-7pm. Emirates Palace. Works cost from Dhs2,635 from www.swissartgateuae.com. Viewings by appointment only. Send an SMS with name, date and time to Kurt Blum, 050 225 1783.
