It’s Day 255 and I had a really great time painting this piece today.  I think my piece is a little different than his pieces, but it’s definitely inspired by him.  Join me in honoring Marcello Lo Guidice today!

Marcello Lo Giudice b. 1957 Taormina Sicily “…Where light’s energy blends with

metamorphism of the material to create remote geological views” (Pierre Restany)

Marcello Lo Giudice’s art is centered around an affection for the subtle and profound, geological substance of the matter. His multifaceted projects include paintings, installations and sculptures, in which the mediums often blend into each other. Across these different

media, the ambition to uniquely and globally bring attention to the cyclical alliance between cosmic energy and the human becomes immanent. Issues faced by his paintings and installations are an appreciation for and cohabitation with nature, human dignity and the rejection of war and barbary.

His paintings are structured by colors, oils and pigments that are spread thickly on the canvas; laid one upon the other, buried and then reemerged on the surface in various phases. Through this painting technique the surface develops interlaced designs, crossroads and interferences.

With his Totem series, Lo Giudice explores ways to translate images of violence, war and atrocities seen in the media on a daily basis into his art work. Burned, slashed and emptied mattresses, painted with

vibrant layers of color are a reflection of these images. Totems became an emblem of violence and a symbol of the obligation to bring violent events to attention. At the same time, Lo Giudice’s intention is to recuperate their original shamanic religious use as objects or symbols representing protection and liberation.

Since 2000, his oeuvre is enriched with a new sculptural variant inspired by Botticelli’s “Spring”. In these projects, the mattress is completely emptied and his primary structure accommodates a large number of Albisola’s ceramic butterflies which represent “ the beauty laying on violence and war”.

Lo Giudice’s butterflies – as emblematic symbols of spring, rebirth and evolution – represent a hope that humanity entrusts in next

generations with respect to a new consciousness and awareness of wars and collective violence committed in the last century. “With Totem and Primavera’s I didn’t leave painting for sculpture, its more a perpetuation of it: I just amplified painting experimenting new materials like ceramic” (Marcello Lo Giudice)

Born in 1955 in Taormina, Sicily, Lo Giudice lives and works in Milan, Paris and Noto. In 1988, the artist graduated from the University of Bologna. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice In 1989, where he studied under three protagonists of modern Italian Art: Emilio Vedova (1919 – 2006), Giuseppe Santomaso (1907 – 1990), and Virgilio Guidi (1892 – 1984).

As an accomplished and well-renowned artist in Europe, his has participated in a number of solo and group exhibitions throughout Europe, the USA and Asia, including Samuel Lallouz Gallery, Montreal (1987), Bennnetter Gallery, Stockholm (1990), Royal Fine Arts Society, Muscat (2003), Cipriani, New York (2006) and Artcurial “red-rouge”, Paris (2009). Since 2002, Lo Giudice’s art has been auctioned by Christie’s and Sotheby’s respectively.

Biography is from the artist’s website.

My tribute definitely morphed and transformed as the layers dried and I have a feeling it’s going to keep changing.  I used acrylics mixed with modeling paste and crackle paint.  It was so much fun to watch the painting create itself in a sense.  I hope you enjoy my piece today and I’ll see you tomorrow on Day 256!

Best,

Linda