An exhibition of work by Italian artist Silvano Campeggi, better known as "Nano," will be shown at the Redhouse, 201 S. West St., from April 9-27. Campeggi, who designed the posters for this year's Syracuse International Film Festival, produced more than 3,000 billboard posters for major Hollywood films during the post-war period. In the realm of cinema-graphic advertising, he is an Italian institution.
A reception with the artist will be held Friday, April 20, from 3-5 p.m. at the Redhouse. The gallery is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday, as well as before and after Redhouse film, theatre and music events.
This exhibition, titled "Beyond the Silver Screen," features the masterful, contemporary works that define Nano's signature style, going beyond the silver screen and offering a rare glimpse of his original drawings and paintings. Combining his skills as an illustrator and painter, Nano plays with images, deliberately pairing modern film icons with art history's iconic historic counterparts, each culminating in a whimsical, idealized creation. The deft, essential strokes of vibrant color and black line successfully bridge the distance between the nostalgia provoked by poster art tradition and the post-war film genre that Nano himself nurtured.
Nano's pastiche of style and ideas are interconnected through a visual vocabulary that is both familiar and evocative of a Pop Art sensibility. Nano's poster art evolved from, and at the same time blossomed into, these timeless works, treasures whose influence and reach are still seen in the contemporary work of both fine artists and graphic designers today.
This exhibition is presented in conjunction with the Syracuse International Film Festival
For more information on the exhibition, visit
http://www.theredhouse.org. For information on the film festival,
visit http://www.syrfilmfest.com.
