Romualdo Schiano Was Born In Naples In 1946

Schiano Romualdo was born in Naples in 1946, after achieving the Diploma of Arts, he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples. The main feature of Schiano’s production is his giving voice to the social uneasiness of simple people as well as his unending thirst for artistic research. Schiano started exhibiting works in Naples in 1967. Since then he has produced a wide and varied range of works from sculpture to painting, from design to photography.He’s an artist in the modern sense of the word so he expresses himself through related art-type media for visual expression, including the computer. His versatile artistic carreer can be roughly divided into cycles. Youth Cycle In the 60’s Schiano’s style varies from expressionism to realism, his production consists mainly of paintings and sculptures portraying the uneasiness and anguish of man. In his paintings he achieves the aesthetic tension of the artwork creating a striking contrast between the brightness of the colours used ( orange, yellow, red and black) and the grief of the subjects represented with faces distorted by pain. Sometimes the subjects are so overwhelmed to crouch down like “incubus”(e.g.”Incubi”,1969). In the 70’s Schiano produces some “collages” influenced by pop-art reproducing images of death interspersed with pieces of news taken from some newspapers of the time to condemn war and violence.(e.g.”Senza pace”,1968). Body Art Cycle . In 1980 he plays an active role in an experience of Body Art “Is Art on Sale?”: he ties and gags himself to protest against the very bad restoration of the mural painting made by the futurist artist Enrico Prampolini (1894-1956), carried out by the local institutions at Mostra d’Oltremare in Naples.His protest-performance, reported in the newspapers of the time, finds immediately the support of the active cultural operators and the consent, both in Italy and abroad, in the daily papers and in the specialistic magazines. Schiano’s social commitment is consolidated owing to “Lenzuolo a toppe” of 1981 which belongs to this cycle, It consists of a series of works made on sheets shown during a street-performance. Schiano’s “sheets” hang in the sun like the traditional sheets that hang in Naples’ vicoli; they are characterized by snatches, rips, patches, mends interwoven by images relating glories and griefs of a “sick” city, Naples. They try their origin “on the road”, on the territory, exactly in a “vicolo” of Naples, then they are moved into an Art Gallery. In 1983 he was invited by Anacapri town Council to the “International Meetings of Art” together with A. Pomodoro, A. Cascella, Joe Tilson, Gillo Dorfles and others. Relived Effects Cycle. From 1983 to 1985 the artist carries out a cycle of paintings called “relived effects” consisting in operating on canvas, recycling fragments of linen, materials of ancient laces and handmade articles once used by ladies to go to Mass or to important events. Schiano recovers ancient objects, each of which with a story of its own, to tell the recent story of Neapolitan people; these works represent a very peculiar operation from an anthropological point of view as well as an achievement of a great pictorial effect. Little by little the clothes give the way to the colour effect of the “Pompeian Red” obtained by the artist thanks to a natural Neapolitan earth powder. In this way the cycle “Crossed Painting” takes life in 1986. Crossed Painting Cycle .In the end of the 80’s his works are characterized by the extensive use of his enlightening Pompeian Red blended with images of houses, ancient temples and ancient classical busts, interspersed with arabesqued materials. The glory of the past lives again and represent the antithesis of the degradation of the present time. In 1992 the artist is invited to exhibit his works together with the “Ori di Oplonti Exhibition” in Germany, at the Popular University of Monchengladbach.

In 1994 he is invited to Germany again to an exhibition at “Europafest” organized by the town Council of Alsdorf.. Industrial Finds Cycle Being interested in the new technologies, he made approaches to computer art, as an additional medium for imagination. His preferred subjects are industrial finds, objects that are out of use nowadays, but keep inside them the identity of the past . He makes industrial finds live again acquiring new meaning to testify the rapid evolution of contemporary time which affects both the objects and the values system . In 2003 he has exhibited his works of digital art at “Ramo D’Oro”, an art gallery in Naples,

His works are quoted in the historical Archives of Contemporary Art and some of his works are permanently displayed in public places both in Italy and abroad.. He has held several personal exhibitions among which : Casa Rossa di Anacapri, Antichi Arsenali della Repubblica di Amalfi, Villa Rufolo di Ravello. His works have been quoted or treated extensively by: G. Agnisola, G. Amodio, G. Capriolo, E. Corsi, V. Cuomo, S. Di Bartolomeo, S. Di Bello, M. Elefante, A. Ercoli, L.P. Finizio, G. Fiore, M. Forgione, A, Ghedina, C. Grassi, G. Grassi, N. Hristodorescu, A. Izzo, M. Maiorino, G. Montana, R. Pane, G. Pedicini, L. Petrella, U. Piscopo, F. Ribolla, N. Scontrino, M. Sottile, M. Sovente, C. Stenberg,U. Strobel, M. Vitiello.