Italian Cultural Institute presents Armando

By Selome Kifle

The Italian Cultural Institute presented the work of an Italian painter, Armando Arpaja on Wednesday, March 3, 2004.
Armando Arpaja was born and raised in Rome (Italy); he has had a sincere love for art since he was a child. Through time the painter continued to study painting, which led him to explore his inner melody.
Presenting 28 masterpieces using oil paint on different media such as wood, cooper plate and paper, Arpaja explains his choice of media. The different media show his mood at the time the painting is being created. For example, when he feels tired he prefers to work on paper. Otherwise Arpaja prefers wood and cooper plate.
Most of the work of art in this particular exhibition depicts the experience the painter had while he traveled in the Middle East and North Africa including Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Palestine. “Two of my paintings are made in Cairo because the environment inspired me to capture the activities I have witnessed there. I travel to different places and one of the reasons for such long trips is to get a lot of different ideas and experiences,” said Arpaja.
Arpaja says that his technique could be categorized as realistic but he has his own way of presenting reality through the powerful use of intense and charming colors. His inspiration mostly flows in the morning. Speaking about one of his rather conflicting looking pieces he explained that he was trying to show the contradiction (the difference) between two languages, something which he experienced while he was in one of the Middle East countries.
The painters’ works are being sold in the range of EURO 300 to 1000.
His most recent exhibitions took place in 1999 at the University of Ankara and at the Italian Cultural institute in Cairo in 1991 and 1994. He also exhibited at the Italian Cultural Institute in Cairo in 2000 for the third time.
Armando Arpaja attended the school of Iriental Art of Municipality of Rome and then transferred to Athens for seven years to assist as an apprentice to Jannis Tsaroukis whom he considers his master.
In December 1982 and in January 1998, Arpaja was chosen to receive the European personage for the art of paintings “Premio Campidoglio.” He held various classes for last year students at the faculty of Fine Art of University of Helwan in Zamalek (Egypt).
Dr. Emiliano Longhi, Director of Cultural and Scientific Attaché of the Embassy of Italy here in Addis said that it takes one and a half years to organize the exhibition because they had to first ask the painter to send his work and catalogues and then go through the process of organizing the show and fit it in the institute’s rather busy schedule. He also noted that the cultural institute is also planning to organize a workshop with Armando Arpaja to exchange ideas between the Ethiopian artists and the Italian painter.

Corigliano @ the Hilton

 Oronzo Corigliano is an Italian artist whose work is exhibited at the Hilton hotel in Addis Ababa this month. Thirty-nine of his paintings are included in this exhibition. The paintings  from this artist who has made Addis his home for the last two years, mostly reveal Ethiopian culture and its beautiful women.

His paintings on exhibit use very imaginative ways of capturing moments. “I use my own imaginary light on my paintings. The paintings that I have exhibited here have a different look because I incorporated my own personal mix of colors to give the paintings a natural look,” said Corigliano.

Among the displayed artwork, the painter makes two distinctions, which he calls realistic, where he uses watercolors and symbolic paintings tinted by oil colors. In the realistic and symbolic, he believes that everything that is represented in the paintings possesses a different momentum.

Corigliano preferred to paint with watercolors particularly in Ethiopia, because while he travels it is so much easier to capture the things that amazes him, but he considers oil paint more comfortable and easy to use. Other than the comfort Corigliano believes that using oil colors helps him to show viewers his respect for African women.

At a very early age the painter showed considerable talent and a strong interest for painting, and at age of 15 he already started to participate in a group exhibitions. Last year for the first time in Ethiopia and the whole of Africa, Oronzo Corigliano presented his work at the Italian Cultural Institute.

Corigliano has exhibited his work in Mali and Burkina Faso, in addition to Ethiopia.  In Ethiopia he has traveled to visit some of the southern regions (Omo Valley and Rift Valley) in order to portray their inspirational activities. In the period of 1991-90 he was able to exhibit a series of studies in watercolor, depicting the landscapes and the life of African villages. These journeys helped the painter publish several articles on “Culture dell’ Africa Nera”, which were published in 1998.

At present Corigliano is the director of  “Civic Museum of Paleontology and Mankind” in Lizzano, Taranto. Since November 2001, the painter has been living in Ethiopia. This is his second solo exhibition in Ethiopia..