Ferruccio D’Angelo was born in Civita (Cosenza) Italy; he attended the Academy of Belle Arti of Turin and finished his studies with a thesis on Piet Mondrian and Neoplasticism. Currently he is a teacher of theory and method of visual communication and clay modeling at The Primo art school in Turin.
In the first part of his artistic path, he dedicated himself to a series of stylistic transitions that brought him to do pictorial research, which was the start towards the artistic movement of Informal Spatial concept of which he summarizes the experiences of the major exponents, from the Action Painting of Pollock, Williem de Kooning and Franz Kline. He was particularly fascinated by the artist from Milan Lucio Fontana and the Russian (naturalized American) Marc Rothko.
In the second half of the 80”S he personally met some of the major exponents of the Arte Povera (Merz, Pistoletto, Zorio) with whom he became friends at the Studio Noacco, his own art gallery.
Later he developed a research on the role of art in a new social context, linguistic nomadism that goes from painting and sculpting to artistic installations. The artist finds his inspirations from the fascinating ambiguity of contemporary society: remains or industrial waste, cans, dustbins, photographic films, cardboard, are elevated as a symbol of the contemporary conditions, they became the main subjects of his work (The tree of life, The tree of death Gallery of Gabriele Fasolino, 1987; The labourer , Noacco studio, 1989; Cinema, Gallery of Piero Cavellini, Milan, 1991; Gallery of Unimedia, Genova). In 1992 he participated at the artistic contest D’ora in avanti, 30 giovani artisti, 44° Premio Michetti, Michetti Foundation, initiative organized by Renato Barilli, the following year he also participated at the Biennale d’Arte Contemporanea Rentrèe Premio Marche. In 1994 in Turin e participated at Il giardino dell’arte, Ex zoo Parco Michelotti, and at Equinozio d’autunno (Franz Paludetto gallery, Rivara Castle); in 1995 he exhibited an art installation at the Lanscape Museum of Verbania. In 1997 he realized a series of paintings on the lid of dustbins at Officina Italia, in the Modern Art Gallery of Bologna, and he participated at Va pensiero. Arte italiana 1984-1996, promoted by Musei Civici di Torino. The following years he did a series of personal and public exhibitions. A part from these also Una Babele post moderna (Palazzo Pigorini, Parma, 2002); Interni Italiani 4. Novarum (Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Copenaghen, 2005); BAM/Biennale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea del Piemonte (Villa Giulia, Verbania, 2006). BAM Project ArtDesign (Villa Giulia, Verbania, 2008); Biennale Internazionale di Sabbioneta (Mantova , 2010); Biennale Internazionale di Jinan (Cina, 2010); Un’Altra Storia ex chiesa di San Francesco (Como, 2011); Via col Vento, Museo Arte Bambina (Vittorio Veneto,Treviso, 2012); Un’Altra Storia2. Arte Italiana 1980-1990″ (CCC-T Ex Birrificio Metzger, Torino, 2012); BAM Piemonte Project 5Contemporary Photobox (Chieri, 2012); Museo dei Brettii e degli Enotri (Cosenza, 2012).
In the last decade the artist detaches himself from fixed themes of which he is no longer interested in. He asks himself a thousand questions on existence, problem concerning light, shade, form, space, substance and the course of time. Whoever asks him who his subjects are, he answers: “My subjects are the questions I ask myself”.
The people who wrote about him are:
Lucio Cabutti, Sandro Cherchi, Elena Pontiggia, Maria Teresa Roberto, Francesco Poli, Edoardo Di Mauro, Viana Conti, Boris Brollo, Maria Campiteli, Sandro Ricaldone, Renato Barilli, Aldemar Schiffkorn, Enrico Crispolti, L. Spadano,Tiziana Conti, R. Boston, L. Borghesan, A. Mistrangelo,Angelo Dragone, Mirella Bandini,Samuele Mazza,Cristina Morozzi, R. Di Caro,Lisa Parola, F. Fanelli, W. Santagata, N. Corradini,Arturo Quintavalle,Vincenzo Sanfo. Stefania Provinciali. Camillo Bacchini.
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Ferruccio D’Angelo’s work has its origin in Turin in the 80’s, in the area that claims the tradition of the artistic movement of “Arte Povera”, especially from the point of view of artistic installations, his work grasps the tensions of contemporaneity in the background of a cultural and symbolic figuration.
Along with the guidelines, Ferruccio D’Angelo introduces the use of metallic materials and bituminous black, trashcans and their lids, PVC and cardboard, “poor” elements that have a new meaning in a ludic dimension.
Wither roses and cities suffocated by pollution and black petrol are the subjects painted on the lids of trashcans. His poetic vision was born in 1989 in the art studio Noacco, the art gallery of Turin’s hinterland that collaborates with artists of the artistic movement of “Arte Povera”, his painting of still life were exhibited in the private gallery of Crossing in Venice (1990), along with the artists Marco Gastini, Mario Merts; Michelangelo Pistoletto, Gilberto Zorio and Giorgio Griffa.
At the beginning of the 90’s the gallery of Piero cavellini in Milan organized a personal exhibition of the artist with a majestic artistic installation called “Cinema”: a room organized like a movie setting, composed by chairs realized from piled trashcans used as structure of the seats.
The “Cinema” exhibition was presented by Renato Barilli who at that time was the commissioner of the Biennale di Venezia, this event was followed by very important public exhibitions such as “D’ora in avanti, 30 giovani artisti. 44° Premio Michetti”1992; “Rentrée. Premio Marche 1993; “Officina Italia” at the gallery of Modern art of Bologna, “Va’ pensiero. Arte italiana 1984-1996”, Turin (1997); Biennale Internazionale di Sabbioneta (2010); Un’Altra Storia, at the former church of San Francesco, Como (2012).
Boris Brollo, Art critic, Venice 2016
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Ferruccio D’Angelo’ s origin is in the post-poverist artistic movement
D’Angelo is surely a “child” of all those ferments of which I wrote before and that emerged in his research in a subtle way, almost as if it was an echo to a style that already is part of the history of Turin, and that created new personalities and new paths.
D’Angelo has absorbed the artistic frond, but he never denied any kind of paths for his research, trough both the artistic installations from the post-poverist movement and also through a reinterpretation of a comeback of a kind of painting that is completely singular and personal. D’Angelo is not an imitator, he is a sincere supporter of the artistic anarchy, understood as the liberty of expression and as the only viable path to take in order to leave a message when we are gone, a clear sign to those who come after us.
My travelling around the United States and China, between South America and Africa, in European capitals and ateliers all over the world, allows me to collocate Ferruccio D’Angelo’ s work in an international context, and also to give him a “international license” for his continuous, tireless and constant research that is not to confer to everyone and to believe in the very sincerity of this research.
The work of Ferruccio D’Angelo is historically situated at the center of the artistic debate of our time, it deserves to be recognized as one of the important figures of the artistic movement set in Turin.
Vincenzo Sanfo – Curator of the “Biennale d’Arte “of Pechino.