Ruggero Vanni

Ruggero Vanni was born in Paris. He studied painting from 1973 to 1978 at the Istituto d'Arte in Rome, Italy, under the guidance of Italian artist Michelangelo Conte, with an emphasis on fresco and artwork conceived as a part of the architectural context.

In 1979 he moved to New York to study art at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York, earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1982. While at Cooper Union, the courses of Erwin Rubin, a former student of Josef Albers, was essential in defining Vanni's interest for colors as the founding elements of his work.

Vanni lives and works in New York City, where he has his studio. He also spends a period of the year working in Italy and Greece. His work has been exhibited in Italy and the United States.

Ruggero Vanni's work cannot be labeled under the name of any school or style, and yet it bears the distinctive marks of artists and artistic schools throughout history. His major influences come from the Venetian School of the Late Renaissance (Tintoretto, Veronese) and Late Baroque (Tiepolo, Piazzetta), as well as from the Luminist artists of the Hudson River School (Bierstadt, Church).

Vanni's work is figurative, in the sense that it depicts a three-dimensional space, but it is also non-representational, avoiding any form that could be clearly recognizable.

His paintings are characterized by a definite contrast between lighter and darker. In the light-to-mid-tone areas, the interplay of colors is strongly enphasized. In the darker areas, multiple layers of glazing (transparent colors diluted in varnishes) create the impression of depth.

Though Vanni has produced works that varies greatly in size, his vision is best realized in his larger paintings. These works convey his passion for architecture. Colors and matter produce illusory tridimensional spaces that create a transition between the reality of the space, where the work is shown, and the imagination of the viewer's mind.

The artist writes: "My works allude to natural phenomena, in a raw state, devoid of the limiting constrictions of literal representation. Nature is there, as a landscape, a view looking up in the air, or plunging down underwater. Imagery is kept on the edge of recognition, so the final association is created in the mind.

Contrasts of matter, color, and light are created to provoke emotional responses.In the large paintings the atmospheric composition is built by raised brushstrokes shattered and reassembled to reveal an underlying struggle. In the smaller works paper is cast tumultuously as a counterpoint to its inherent frailness."