Angelo Bellobono lives and works in Rome and New YorkAngelo Bellobono has placed humankind and the land at the centre of his research from his artistic debut, highlighting the difficult relationship of belonging and identity, understood not simply in a social and cultural sense but also in a biological one. The mechanisms by which biochemistry translates into behaviours and emotions underlie all his paintings, videos and performance art, de-emphasising all that presumed spirituality which animates existence.A sense of dramatic irony thus emanates from his portraits, lost in blinding whiteness or in a dark sea of petroleum, at once liquid and solid, conceptually unstable and temporary, dependent on their chemical sense of biological precariousness. They expose the constant efforts to seek an identity or a place to which to belong, a constant freezing and unfreezing of existences which are hidden or denied and an ideal well-being. Bellobono gives form and concrete expression to selected emotions experienced by all human beings and in his most recent work, investigating human migratory movements, this research has once again combined painting with performance and video art.Bellobono’s first important solo exhibition dates to 1995, when he presented Meeting in America at the San Diego (CA) Galleria Spagnolo, followed by Aria Compressa at Casa Pratesi in Rome. In 2003 he held Extrasistole e Pacemaker, curated by Raffaele Gavarro at Livorno’s DagArtGallery. Body Life Program and Recruitment, both curated by Lorenzo Canova, were held in Bari and at Rome’s Galleria Altri Lavori in Corso.In 2006 he held the exhibition Temporary Civilization at Sole Arte Contemporanea, curated by Francesca Franco.Bellobono’s major collective exhibitions include: the Premio Lissone in 2002, the 26th Premio Vasto and Futuro Italiano at the European Parliament, all curated by Lorenzo Canova; Arterritory, curated by Gianluca Marziani and Dominique Lora at the Centrale Museo Montemartini in Rome; TEC at the Scuderie Aldobrandini in Frascati, on invitation by Alessio Verzenassi. In 2005 he was awarded the Premio Celeste for painting; he participated in the Pasolini e Roma exhibition at the Museo di Roma on invitation by Enzo Siciliano and Lorenzo Canova; he was invited by Gianluca Marziani to participate in the exhibition EternoPresentePrimordiale held at the Galleria Art Sinergy in Bologna. In 2007 he was invited to participate in the travelling exhibition On the Edge of Vision at the Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata, the Museums of Modern Art of New Delhi and Mumbai and the Ficc
