Mariolino

Via Pontone 5 - 80075 Forio d'Ischia

tel 081/997169

Biography

18th July 1943: the future artist is born. Just as each and every one of us comes into this world with our own latent qualities in fieri, so our artist, at an early age, shows signs of his artistic talents. At the age of seven, fascinated by the variegation of colours in fabrics, he sets about copyng them using rudimentary, not to mention (for those days) rare pastels.

At eleven years of age Mariolino starts experimenting with new techniques: water colours, tempera, oils, murals, always self-taught but maintaining an almost instinctive predilection for drawing.

In 1958 he exhibits with a group of artists who hang out at Forio's "Bar Internazionale"; a fifteen year old boy among acclaimed artists.

Subsequently he enrols in the "Marine Academy" at Procida, thus fostering another of his passions: the sea. Here he soon sets about illustrating Academy life in his drawings, portraits and humorous sketches.

After graduating he is ready to take on the world, and in his case not metaphorically; but in fact by choosing a life at sea; navigating, seeking every opportunity to observe and assimilate, taking in forms and figures, landscapes, all to be stored and, who knows, one day revisited by his pens and brushes.

In 1964, a bereavement leads Mariolino to burn all of his pictorial works.

Another phase of his life begins: his encounter with the sea....

18th July 1965, South of the Bermuda triangle : mariolino is on board the cargo ship "Erice" returning from the South Pacific and on its way to Gibraltar, via Panama. A tremendous storm blows up, making it impossible to reach the galley and the only available means of subsistence is a supply of beer. Mariolino's mind erupts along with the storm, and amid nostalgia and self-analysis, one particular obsession rises like a giant, vehement and passionate like no other and, like an explosion, leaves a tendril, a query, hanging in the air... Will I ever paint again?;

This almost primitive need lies dormant in Mariolino for a long time before reaffirming itself. First however his life undergoes other changes; he gives up his career at sea, starts a career in trade, marries, becomes a father... At the beginning of the eighties he starts drawing again using pen and ink and wax pastels. His landscapes are apparently surreal, but he uses a wide variety of technical and expressive methods (experimental). He begins to use acrylic colours, mastering and moulding them to his ownends.

In 1984 he partecipates in exbitions and competitions, always either winning outright or being highly placed, then, in the following years he exhibits in several private shows.

Mariolino's work becomes more and more meticulous distinct; characterised by accuracy and detail, almost embodying a realism/non-realism, intriguing both from an ingenuous point of view as well as in relation to any attempt to identify oneself with the artist.

His iconography is unusual and disconcerting, in a certain way released from the conventions of contemporary art, and yet  it gives a clear impression of the anxiety and restlessness of the human mind. The recurring theme of Pinocchio represents a pretext by which the artist nourishes his iconographic repertory, allowing for a sharp observation of reality.

His creations, in fact, reveal a keen, naturalistic sensitivity, both in appearance and colour, almost symbolising a sort of subconscious genealogy with another great artist of the past, another great indipendent, Hieronymus Bosch.

18th July 1999, Forio d'Ischia: Mariolino is ensconced in his "puteca", and this local word of ours, meaning shop, is reminiscent of those old-time workshops and artists'studios where one would linger to talk of Art.

Here, Mariolino faces the issues in hand, debating with amateurs as well as experts.

Is is here, at the very end of this century, that the artist engages in lively discussion with a friend, discussing his artistic achievements over the years, the missed at all but intentionally avoided, merely obeying the artist's purest interior needs, giving reign to a destiny which ultimately made Art his life-companion.

We are at the dawning of the third millennium.                                                                                                                                                                             Maria Mennella