"Canto alla luna" (2011) Painting by Michele D'Avenia

Michele D'Avenia was born in Sesto San Giovanni on 9 December 1964. He lives and works in Messina. Eager to learn "trade", he trained at the school of restoration of ancient paintings in specialized workshops and, with the same goal, he also carried out important works in the field of decoration and scenography; activities, these, parallel to the main ones, aimed at the realization of works of painting and sculpture, to which he devotes himself full time. His works tend to propose, with a refined technique with a highly realistic imprint, images of great emotional impact that evoke feelings and sensations linked to everyday gestures and moments caught and stopped in their becoming. "... In the rooms of the female soul, with technical mastery that can be seen from the use of light, which combines Caravaggio and the film set, Michele D'Avenia moves, finding, in domestic simplicity, the emotions of love, from a subtle and refined eroticism, to a romantic take; from desperate waiting to flattery and disappointment. The artist moves in the manner of Jack Vettriano, with the difference that the Scot has Hopper and the "American scene" behind him, while D'Avenia has chosen the "Italian scene" (L. Barbera). In the thirty years of artistic activity he has made numerous important personal and collective exhibitions, public and private, and his works are in important private collections and public bodies. In 1998 he represented Sicily, together with other artists, at the Columbus Citizen Foundation Inc. in New York. In 2002 he created his own exhibition space, with an adjoining laboratory, in an elegant location in the center of Messina. In 2004 he won the Mondadori Art Prize for sculpture with the work "The other face of sin", made of white Carrara marble; in 2009 he created, for a private client, "Compianto", a large work of religious subject with great pictorial vigor and intense expressiveness, then requested in 2011 by the Archdiocese of Messina to be exhibited, thanks to the kind concession of the owner, at the Archbishopric of Messina as part of the "Faith, Art and Music" project; in 2010 he designed and built the monumental sculpture “October 1st 2009”, a tribute to the victims of the flood by Giampilieri and Scaletta (Messina); in 2011 he was present at the 54th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale; in 2012 he was chosen by Whirlpool to be part of the “Brief Roadshow 2012” project, and one of his works was acquired by the Whirlpool museum; in 2013 he made an important and significant anthology entitled "Beauty is possible" at the Royal Palace of Palermo; is counted among the most important Sicilian artists from the 30s to today in the exhibition "Artists of Sicily", curated by Vittorio Sgarbi, in the three editions of the Tonnara Florio di Favignana, Palazzo Sant'Elia in Palermo and Castello Ursino in Catania .

• Nationality: ITALY
• Date of birth : 1964
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary Italian Artists