“Pino, Master of the Romance Painting”
It is rare to have such a highly acclaimed artist for a show, but Nuance Galleries had the
opportunity to welcome Pino to our gallery in 2004. Due to a medical emergency he was unable to attend, but we were able to host his son Max at the opening. It was a wonderful experience to have his oils on canvas, to see the brush strokes and the way he mixes his colors together to create such beautiful portraits. Many of the people who came to the show were struck by the emotions the faces in his images evoke.

Pino Bio – In 1939, Pino was born Giuseppe Dangelico in Bari, Italy on the cusp of a defining world war in Europe. Pino’s visual childhood memories are of those women left behind to keep the home fires burning. His mother, aunts, grandmothers, and cousins became a universe of attractive Italian women in aprons, maintaining domestic tranquility in very uncertain times. Bathed in the Adriatic light of his native Bari, these figures would later infuse the romantic canvases of Pino that speak so softly to the hearts of Europeans and Americans alike today.

Growing up with the faded glories of Renaissance art and architecture at his doorstep, Pino was in tune with the energies of a new era and, despite his phenomenal success as one of the leading European illustrators of all time, he wanted to be closer to the dynamic art center of the world, New York. He also wanted to release his art from the restrictions of others and be free to explore new avenues that had been opened by the abstract expressionists. You may recognize Pino’s illustration work from the cover of romance novels including many by the author Danielle Steele.

Eager to leave illustration behind and begin stretching the new envelope of fine art with his fresh, figural concepts and brilliant brushwork, Pino began showing his canvases to galleries in 1994. They met with immediate success among collectors, and Pino began to distill over forty years of training and experience into each new painting. His training came from the Art Institute of Bari and Milan’s Academy of Brera where he perfected his talent and skill for painting figures. Combining all that he has learned from his formal training and assimilated from observing the great master, Pino has evolved a mature style that is both distinctive and deeply rooted in art history.

“Feminine, ephemeral forms of flesh whose light and shadow suggest depth and mystery are contrasted with explosive passages of rich, textured color in compositions that are as much about how the artist feels as what he sees. It is subjective illusion of space juxtaposed with an abstract acceptance of the painting’s flat surface that sets Pino’s work apart from other artists.”- Quote from Pino, Contemporary Realism