My name is Amarilli, I was born and raised in Milan, Italy, and live now in beautiful Tuscany~ I have a passion for oil painting and most forms of arts.
I studied Art at the Brera Academy in Milan, where I had in particular 2 great teachers, Beppe Devalle for painting/drawing, and Mario Benedetti for etching.
I also studied 4 years Illustration and Comics at the Sforza Castle School in Milan.
Since my teens I became obsessed with Norway and its language, felt inspired by the nordic athmosphere and mythology, as if I had lived there before.
At the age of 24, after several trips, I moved to the lovely city of Bergen where I spent some of the most significant and fun years of my life. I considered myself a painter but I was involved in a wide variety of activities, jobs and social activities.
In this period I had a brief but intense parenthesis as apprentice ceramist, and I decorated several public places not only in Bergen, in different styles.
In 2000, yet, tired of the lack of sun, I moved back to Italy and found in Tuscany the necessary isolation and serenity to begin to paint “for good”, leaving behind languages, tourists etc.
I reside now in the beautiful tuscan countryside, and work at my personal painting projects, as well as, occasionally, for an interior decoration company. This job is very interesting because sometimes it’s about restoring ancient mural works, which allows me to learn from the tuscan /senese rich traditional decorations.
Thank you for your interest in me and my work 🙂
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Art is for me like a Bridge between the Visible and the Invisible. I paint natural and supernatural creatures, inspired by folklore, myths, fairy tales or my own life, with oils, acrylics, or mixed media. I concentrate on subjects which reflect my love for innocence, and my attraction to what is mysterious, hidden and layered. Digging into the ancient roots of our cosmic origin, and tapping in the most atemporal dimension I manage to access, I hope for my paintings to be as timeless as possible. I enjoy to explore the magical symbolic and oniric aspects of reality ~ a dimension of mystery and play, existing with its own rules and well hidden under mundane happenings and daily life. I am very happy to discover that the world I depict often awakens something which resembles “old lost memories” from outside time and space, in certain special sensitive persons….
“The Guardians”
I often like to depict characters which look “scary” at a first approach and which, when seen without prejudices, reveal a positive aspect of wisdom, compassion, or protection, and of transformation of the negative into positive. I am fascinated by the figure of the Guardian, which is inherently good and protecting, but which has also a scary aspect: it must have claws and teeth to defend what is good, wise, innocent. ~ Amarilli A. ~ April 2013
ART RESUMÉ
2001 : Solo exhibition at Café Paradiso – Trequanda (SI). Collective exhibition – S.Giovanni d’Asso Commune (Siena). Collective exhibition – Petroio Commune (SI). 2002 : International Contemporary Art Convention “Magica. The magic in Art”- Ferrara, Este Castle. By Ferrara Pro Art (Gabriele Turola). Collective exhibition New Trends – Ferrara, Gallery Sekanina Larson (Paola Trevisan). 2003 : Vericon 3, Harvard University, Cambridge. Collective exhibition “Art & Mask” – Foiano della Chiana (AR). Solo exhibition “I Guardiani della Soglia” – Il Camarlengo, Castelmuzio (SI). Solo exhibition “Vampyres and other creatures”- Caffé Poliziano, Montepulciano (SI). Solo exhibition “Water Muses” Antica Querciolaia – Terme di Rapolano (SI) Solo exhibition “I Guardiani del Confine” – Veracchi Arredamenti – Sinalunga (SI) 2004 : Solo exhibition “Mythologic & Fantastic Creatures”- Il Chiostro – Pienza (SI) Participation @ Fiera dell’Antiquariato – Buonconvento (SI) Solo exhibition “Enchanted Music” – 3° International Festival of the Romanza da Salotto – Auditorium Dina Orsi – Conegliano (TV) Collective exhibition “ARTE CONTEMPORANEA IN ESPOSIZIONE” – Gallery Postart – MILANO. (Gianni Gallinaro). Collective exhibition “Between Here and The Other Side” SAGENE KULTURVERKSTED, OSLO (NORWAY). (Svein Juterud). 2004-2008: Collaboration with Alessandro Voltolini Decorazioni e Restauro. 2009 : Personal exhibition “Tuscan Dream”- Estate Trequandina, Comune di Trequanda, TREQUANDA (Siena) 2013 : Collective Exhibition Amarilli & Francesca Voltolini – “L’Ornato e l’Eleganza Eterica” Sala Rosa @ Università di Siena 2013-2014 : Represented by Galleria Tondinelli in Rome (art resume to be updated).