Italy
lives and works in NYC
Angelo Filomeno (b. 1963 in Ostuni, Italy / lives and works in NYC since 1992) combines classical painting with the traditional craft of embroidery to create tableaux that incorporate luxurious materials such as shantung silk, crystals, and onyx within intricate designs. In contrast to the immediate allure of the surface, Filomeno’s embroidered paintings are filled with an array of macabre characters: skeletons, beasts, insects, limbs, and body parts. In recent years, the artist’s technical and aesthetic skill in merging painting, embroidery, and craft has introduced an expanded use of color and materials including muslin and denim as well as a variety of characters that have never before been incorporated into each of the hand-made canvases.
Filomeno has had solo museum exhibitions at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Georgia; Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Tennessee; Italian Cultural Institute of New York; Fondazione Museo Pino Pascali, Italy; and Italian Cultural Institute of Toronto, Canada. His work has been included in major international biennials including the 52nd Venice Biennale, Italy (2007), and ARS 06, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Finland (2006). Filomeno’s work can be found in several public collections including the Centre Georges Pompidou, France; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan; 21C Museum, Kentucky; and Museum of Art & Design, New York.
