Why did I invite Antonio Tamilia?

I’ve chosen to invite Antonio Tamilia, with whom I share a studio since 1996 in a very large, former game room in the Pigneto area. We did meet in the early eighties as young printmakers, both fascinated by black and white intaglio practice. In 1990 we were both selected for an exhibit at the Palazzo Esposizioni as Young Artists under 35 in Rome and our mutual esteem for each other’s artwork grew stronger. This twenty-seven years old studio sharing has cemented our friendship and developed into reciprocal confidence in our common working activity.  

Tamilia is mainly an abstract, expressionist painter, working on large scale canvases, wood and paper; his main prerogative consists in multilayering paint stratifications, often melted color waxes and pastels, with attention to the interplay of glazing and opaque areas. I would define his work as gestural and material oriented, with occasional figurative memories.