Angelo Bellobono

Angelo Bellobono (Nettuno, 1964)

“I paint to return home. Painting is my map made of sweat, wind, cold, sun, climbs, and descents. It is the construction of the path.”

Through his work, Bellobono paints suspended atmospheres and stories that explore the relationship between anthropology, geology, identity, borders, and territory, constantly redrawing both the natural and social landscape. Through the body, he becomes landscape, constantly experimenting with a sense of belonging to places—an experience necessary for reading sedimentations and memories. Over the years, his identities as an artist, ski instructor, hiking guide, and coach have become deeply intertwined. Ice and mountains, especially the mountain ranges of the Mediterranean, which he imagines as a vast mountain lake, are frequent elements in his work. Ice represents the memory archive of the planet, while mountains are envisioned as zippers, not barriers, acting as bridges between cultures and countries.

Alongside his personal artistic research, Bellobono has realized many interdisciplinary projects in which art, sport, hiking, and biosustainability have been used as tools for social connectivity and skill development. These include projects such as Atla(s)now with the Amazigh communities of the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco, Before me and after my time with the Ramapough Lenape Native Americans in New York, and Io sono Futuro in the earthquake-stricken areas of central Italy’s Apennines. In the summer of 2018, for the project Linea Appennino 1201, he crossed the Apennines from Calabria to Liguria, collecting the soil from each peak—places of temporary rest—which he then used as material in his paintings. These were later compiled in a book produced by the Maramotti Collection and exhibited in a large show at Albumarte in Rome. Between 2020 and 2022, he created Mappa Appennino, a series of four painting expeditions, residencies, and workshops in the southern, central, and northern parts of this mountain range, later exhibited in a solo show at the MAXXI Museum in L’Aquila. Since 2023, together with his wife Carla Ciatto, a yoga teacher and environmental guide, he created Casa Appennino, an interdisciplinary center in the Sabina hills.

He has participated in the XV Quadriennale di Roma, the IV and V Biennale of Marrakech, the Pittura Italiana Oggiexhibition at the Triennale of Milan, and the De Prospectiva Pingendi exhibition in Todi. He has exhibited in public and private spaces such as the MAXXI Museum in L’Aquila, AlbumArte, Spazio Mars in Milan, Fondazione Volume in Rome, the Modern Art Museums in Cairo and New Delhi, the MACRO Museum in Rome, the Multicultural Art Center in Melbourne, the Ciac Museum in Genazzano, Palazzo Re Enzo in Bologna, The Othersize Gallery in Milan, Wunderkammern Gallery in Rome, Changing Role Gallery in Naples, Envoy Gallery in New York, Frank Pages in Geneva, and Biasa ArtSpace in Bali.

He won the Cultura e Arte grant from the Roma Foundation in 2019, the Premio Celeste for painting in 2005, and the Artslant prize for drawing in 2009. He was a finalist for the Premio Lissone, Premio Combat, and Premio Portali dello Scompiglio. In 2010, he was invited to the Martedì Critici (Tuesday Critics), and in 2015, to Tedx-Roma. Over the years, he has been invited to various residencies such as Bocs Cosenza, Landina Cars Omegna, and the Lac O Le Mon San Cesario Foundation in Lecce. His work is part of numerous public and private collections.