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Biography

Italian artist Vittorio Matino has produced vibrantly colored abstract paintings for the past forty years. He is best known for his plunging vertical compositions, which he creates by layering paint onto large canvases with a palette knife, then scraping down the center with a brush to expose the brightly stained surface underneath. With this technique, he reveals luminous bands of contrasting colors that overlap against a flat, single-colored background.

Matino began investigating light and color while living in Schio, in the Veneto region of Italy in the 1960s. He quickly developed a vocabulary that reflected the transparent colors of the Venetian School. Travels to the United States and Paris in the mid-1970s exposed him to the Post Impressionists and other visionaries including Piet Mondrian, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman. Matino's experimentations soon led to the dissolution of form in his work. He focused purely on fields of colors. Neither expressionistic nor purely geometric in approach, his formal framework is distinctly his own. Not only has Matino extended the language of the Italian Color Field School but he has also expanded our understanding of color.

Vittorio Matino has had numerous solo exhibitions throughout Europe, including in Padua; Milan; Krefeld, Germany; Paris; and in New York. His work is in the collections of Cassa di Risparmio, Piacenza, Italy, and the Enimont Corporation, New York.

ARTgazine
Press
ARTgazine
A Vibrant Platform for Modern and Contemporary Art September 2009

"The Art section of Hong Kong International Art and Antiques Fair 2009 will feature exceptional works by celebrated artists in a diversity of artistic styles and media. Sundaram Tagore Gallery of New York, Beverly Hills and Hong Kong will show work that encourages a dialogue between the East and West. Featured artists include Hiroshi Senju(Japan), Sohan Qadri (India) and Kim Joon (Korea) along with Susan Weil (USA), Natvar Bhavsar (India)."

South China Morning Post
Press
South China Morning Post
Let the Sun Shine On August 2009

"A Hong Kong gallery is taking an upbeat attitude by presenting major names in its exhibitions [...] Even as galleries along the city's arts and antiques hub, Hollywood Road axe show and offer fewer high-priced works to tide over the global credit crunch, Sundaram Tagore continues to showcase major pieces by the artists it represents."

South China Morning Post
Press
South China Morning Post
Preview: Here and Now at Sundaram Tagore Gallery March 2009

Art historian Sundaram Tagore's doctoral thesis looks at Indian artists' response to European modernisation from the 1940s to 1980s. As a curator, however, his focus is more on the here and now. Hence the title of his gallery's latest group exhibition by 18 international artists, which opens today at the Sundaram Tagore Gallery's Hong Kong branch.

L'Italo Americano
Press
L'Italo Americano
Vittorio Matino Exhibits at Tagore Gallery in Beverly Hills November 13, 2008

Gallerist Sundaram Tagore says, "Vittorio Matino has a brilliant understanding of color. His trips to the US and Paris in the mid-1970s deepened his knowledge of Color Field School, and he, in turn, extended its language. His work is a unique contribution, and his career is long and deep, spanning half a century."

Hong Kong Tatler
Press
Hong Kong Tatler
Showtime: Hot Import May 2008

"...His [Sundaram Tagore] galleries located in New York and Los Angeles, focus on 'a global community of artists, and particularly, on those artists who are engaged in cross-cultural dialogues between East and West.' He asserts, 'We were passionate about thinking globally long before it became fashionable.' So the only mystery is, why has it taken Tagore so long to hit Hong Kong?"

The Hong Kong Trader
Press
The Hong Kong Trader
HK a New Palette for US Galleries February 6th, 2008

"When it came to choosing where to open his first overseas gallery, Sundaram Tagore, operator of the eponymous US-based gallery, knew it had to be Hong Kong. His experience over the years travelling to the city, which he used as his Asia business base, convinced him that it was the ideal place for his new venture."

Art Info
Press
Art Info
Vittorio Matino at NY's Sundaram Tagore April 13, 2007

"Matino ... paints within the western abstract tradition, using color and the physical act of painting with a spirituality akin to the aesthetics of Eastern civilization."

Art Daily.org
Press
Art Daily.org
Trans-Chromatics - Vittorio Matino at Sundaram Tagore APRIL 10, 2007

"For the past decade, Matino has explored the color tradition of India, while continuing to develop a capacity for transforming the limits of our perception off color."

Khaleej Times
Press
Khaleej Times
Dubai Needs to Identify the Right Thinkers of Culture March 9th, 2007

"Dubai is at the crossroads of the east and west, and it is taking charge as one of the great centres of commerce, tourism, and art"

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