Michele La Sala. 

Pugliese, "the mountain of the sun" geographically known as "Gargano" gives it its first cries, San Marco in Lamis in the vast Foggiana province. The Montagna del Sole is a constant reference in Michele La Sala's paintings, his attachment to the territory is profound and a source of inspiration. Self-taught, he lives and works in sunny Foggia. Landscape designer despite the fashions, a material and vibrant painting with fluid and colorful brushstrokes. Convinced that painting must be readable by everyone, a vision of an uncontaminated, beautiful, luxuriant nature, rich in light and color, almost fantastic. A touch of slight artistic madness is present in his paintings where matter, light and color are the actors on the stage of his canvases. It is precisely this way of being a little "crazy" that moves the unconscious into a joyful feeling of everyday life.

Michele La Sala dedicates his life by narrating the events of his land, its culture, its traditions in simplicity and with great passion, admiring and capturing the beauties of nature with all its vibrations and colors. The landscapes of Michele La Sala tell of peasants at work, dormant wheat fields caressed by the wind, trees and buildings that give relief to the tired farmer, secular olive trees that emerge from arid and sometimes stingy lands, with the strength and vigor of nature, poppies and wildflowers in a party of colors.

A hymn to creation and its Creator. A simple message of humility and serenity that the author wants to communicate to those who observe his works. It wants to be at the same time a wish for the man of the third millennium where frenzy, anxiety and worries for futile goals take over. Michele La Sala lives and works in the beautiful city of Foggia in the center of the large board of Puglia.

SEE ALL ARTWORKS BY MICHELE LA SALA

Criticism:

An artist who measures himself against reality. Nature is his inspiration, the very reason for his art. His paintings of him, his rural corners testify to the emotion with which he approaches reality. His is a deep love for nature that he knows how to bring with wisdom to the canvases. Michele La Sala makes his artistic language never complicated, but immediate, the transposition through images of the intimate feeling that binds him to the countryside, as an expression of apparently uncontaminated bucolic beauty. The luminous element, a constant presence in his canvases, gives the colors grace and delicacy while giving the shapes harmony of movement. La Sala, a new and ancient painter, who manages to awaken the memory of those who have easily set aside the voice of nature.

Art critic Giucar Marcone

                                                                                                       Biographical interview of Stefana Bison

                                                                                 Art critic of the "Sangiorgio Art Investments" of Bari

Looking at the works of Michele La Sala, we can confidently affirm, and with undoubted pride, that traditional painting is still alive. Our artist has the rare ability to excite and involve the observer without the need to reuse experimental devices, which are sometimes difficult to understand. His pictorial pages tell of landscapes bathed in blinding light, making visible the poetry of a summer flowering, of an expanse of ripe wheat. Under skies of Vangogean memory, real symphonies of colors explode that vibrate and expand on the canvas thanks to the expert hand of the painter. Tones and contours dense with matter, seem to chase each other clear and perfect on the support, revealing as a whole a real epiphany of Creation.

 How he approached art and what was his training.

 I have a self-taught training, having a technical maturity, I have not attended specific art schools.

I let myself be guided from a young age by sensitivity and a certain predisposition to painting and creativity. I started studying the masters of the past, becoming passionate about the history of art, exploring the historical period of Monet's impressionism, Pissarro Sisly, looking at the great Van Gogh, Kandinskij and the fabulous Fauves of Matisse, the beating heart of my works. I like to read the life of the great masters of art and steal the secrets through the study of their works. This is fundamental for my path, because the influence of each of them is always present in my works.

 The rest was done, in addition to an undoubted natural talent, the Gargano land that gave him birth in 1953. These enchanting places, where the sunlight feeds the contrast between wheat fields and the sea that laps the beaches, have provided Michele La Sala with daily inspiration to work on. But how is a painting of him born?

 It is not easy to say why I choose certain views, drawings or subjects. It is a question of suggestion, of impressions that come to me from what surrounds me and that I, by reworking them, reproduce on the canvas. In the realization of my works other factors, such as depth, cut, sense, perception guide me beyond some semiotic treatises.

 And here we are in the light now warm and blinding, now just muffled by light clouds,which, flooding his works, plays a decisive role in softening the landscapes and color contrasts. What is the ultimate meaning that he attributes to it?

 Light is technically fundamental in painting, and especially in mine. Source of perception and guide of forms and, together with color, the real beating heart of my paintings. It is a changing light that, crystallized on the canvas, defines clearly and without the need for me to add too many details, a precise moment of the day.

 La di lui is a painting that speaks of the earth and nature. How autobiographical is there?

 Nature is important in my life and, consequently, also in my works. This is why I prefer the representation of Apulian landscapes. Having lived my childhood in the countryside, I prefer scenes of work in the fields that are reminiscent of my past. The farmers at work, trees, hills, streams, and expanses of plains with poppies and wildflowers, are my true and inexhaustible source of inspiration

 What is his relationship with the world of contemporary art?

And what are his future projects?

My relationship with contemporary art is not exciting, because, although I am always informed, I do not follow the current trends. Someone called me anachronistic, out of time, but I continue on my way loving my way of making art even if it is outdated. Mine is a real passion that feeds itself. Maybe I am a painter of other times, but I am convinced of my being, happy to please myself and, when I manage to give an emotion to those who look at my works, I am proud of the goal achieved. My plans for the next few years are to always work with dedication, perseverance, with a lot of love for nature and life, always keeping my gaze turned towards the sky. 

Exhibitions:

2015

Genoa Art Fair

Rome Art Fair

Pall Mall Gallery - London

Municipality of Bacoli (Na)

D’addosio Library - Capurso (Ba)

Palazzetto dell’arte of Foggia

2014

Pinacoteca Palazzo S.Gervasio (Pz)

Padua Art Fair

Centro-Rossano Calabro Art Gallery

2013

Pascali Palace - Polignano A Mare (Ba)

Angevin-Mola Di Bari Castle

2012

Roberti Palace - Mola Di Bari

San Bernardino Palace - Rossano Calabro

Casina Dell’eca - Calitri (Av)

2011

Studio 4 Gallery - Molfetta

Gallery 25-Venosa

Pinacoteca Museo Civico- Melfi

Pascali-Polignano A Mare Museum (Ba)

Galleria Centro Arte-Rossano Calabro

2010

Davalos Palace - Trani

Venosa Castle

Vitti Gallery - Altamura

Town Hall - Corato

2009

S. Felice Room - Giovinazzo

Pirro Castle - Venosa

Multimedia Room of S. Marco In Lamis (Fg)

2008

Hotel Resort - Peschiera Del Garda

Lago Di Bomba Exhibition Center

Civic Museum of Melfi

Cloister of the Capuchin Friars of Banzi (Pt)

2007

Municipal Cloister Of Corato

Exhibition Hall - Molfetta Outlet

Maritalia - Peschici

Di Giambo Shopping Center - Caserta

Palmieri Palace - Trani