"My approach to painting is to communicate to the viewer my love for life and human beings, through the expression of my feelings, emotions, and passions... that are inspired by the visual world around me."
- Giovanni Casadei
Dunes, 12" x 12.25", Oil On Panel
I was born and raised in Rome, Italy. Since the age of 4, I have been exposed to art, thanks to my Uncle Roberto, who religiously picked me up every Sunday morning to bring me to a museum to contemplate art. At the age of 14, I bought my first oil painting set with my savings and painted on my own for the next eight years.
From 1978 to 1980, I studied at Scuola Libera del Nudo (Free School for Drawing and Painting sponsored by the Academy of Fine Art of Rome) under the instruction of the Armenian artist, Alfonso Avanessian. From 1980 to 1981, I was enrolled at the Academy of Fine Art in Rome, then from 1981 to 1983, studied further under Alfonso Avanessian, during which I experimented with drawing, oil pastels, dry pastels tempera, watercolor, acrylic, and oil paintings. It was a very productive, creative, and formative period for me as an artist.
On December 1, 1983, I arrived in Philadelphia. At the age of 27, I started the biggest adventure of my life — to be an artist. I worked as a house painter by day and as an artist by night. In 1988, I enrolled in a four year certificate program at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. I began to take classes with Seymour Remenick, who became my mentor and friend for the last ten years of his life. Seymour gave me the support to make my own mistakes and learn from them. His love for art, painting, and human beings was contagious. This love is an integral part of my vision as an artist. He reinforced my belief to follow my heart and what I love in life.
Since 1997, I have been teaching painting at various art centers in the Philadelphia area. I enjoy teaching and sharing my knowledge and experiences from my studio and as an en plein air painter with my students. I have found teaching to be inspiring, challenging, and creative.
My approach to painting is to communicate to the viewer my love for life and human beings, through the expression of my feelings, emotions, and passions that are inspired by the visual world around me. I like to capture with the medium of painting a moment that exists in me and that is inspired by light, colors, and the visual abstractions that nature offers us in every moment in our life. I have been showing and selling my work in Philadelphia and other major cities for the last twenty years.
Peonies, 15" x 13", Oil On Panel
On The Watch, 8.5" x 13.5", Oil On Panel
I am in love with light. Light gives form to perfect objects but also deconstructs objects and lets us experience the immense variety of nature's abstraction, giving us the opportunity to see the common with an uncommon eye.
My creative process gets stimulated by the interaction between the so-called outer nature (everything that light touches) and the so-called inner nature (the one that exists in the form of feelings and thoughts inside the artist). I believe that we create a personal, heartfelt work when we find a common ground for the outer and inner nature to exist in the same space and time, when we do not feel the separation of the two anymore but when they become one.
I'm so amazed, when seeing a masterpiece of the past, to notice that through mere physical materials, the artist was able to convey something spiritual in his or her work.
Gross McCleaf Gallery is pleased to announce two solo exhibitions of new paintings by gallery artists, Natasha Das and Max Mason and a collection of mini exhibitions, featuring the work of Giovanni Casadei, Rhea Cutillo, Ying Li, Scott Noel, Thomas Paquette, Jeffrey Reed and Val Rossman.
Textures created with thread are to Natasha Das what brushstrokes are for other artists: fundamental, visceral, expressive elements. Das’ labor-intensive compositions convey her unique voice by representing an engagement with both abstraction and the weaving tradition of her native India, lending an autobiographical component to her work. . .
