“Look closely at my paintings, you will know me. I’m joy and sadness. I’m deep and shallow. I’m the drop and the ocean. It’s like life. When they ask me to describe myself, I say ‘I’m alive’. In Italian, the feminine of Vito, means life. That’s why they call me Vito.”
Vito Stramaglia is an Italian artist who has a love-hate relationship with paint. When he was younger, he trained to become a professional boxer, but the call of art was too loud to be dismissed. His artworks are recognizable with his signature use of the canvas and the paint, the textures, and subject matters. Vito received an extensive art education and studied the masters before him. Today, we got a chance to ask him our questions through an interview.
“Otherwise”, painting by Vito Stramaglia, 2019, oil on canvas.
How did your style evolve into what it is today? How did you start making art?
My obsession with perfection brought me to art. For years I believed that my future will be figurative art, when suddenly a voice said “The perfection exists only with the absence of control.”. Everything broke out, I went on the canvas and the voice suggested everything.
“One way”, by Vito Stramaglia, 2017, oil on canvas.
What inspires you to create?
Everyday there is this stranger impetus as a background, it gives me vision and inspiration.
Then, how do you decide what to draw?
My decision comes from meditation. I walk among the olive trees, I close my eyes, I breathe deeply and then a lot of pictures start to cover my mind, pictures of life.
“Twin”, by Vito Stramaglia, 2020, oil on canvas.
Laughing people as subject matters are an ongoing theme with you, and they radiate joy! What makes you drawn to laughter, you think?
I think laughter is really ambiguous. It’s like living, you don’t know if you’re really living or if you are just dying. There is duplicity.
Who are your favorite artists?
I don’t have “favorite” artists. I love everyone who brings love and a drop of light in the history of art.
“Track”, by Vito Stramaglia, 2020, oil on canvas.
You can check out Vito’s website from here.
To see Vito Stramaglia’s artist profile on Artleove, click here.
