Fabio D'Aroma

Growing up about an hour and a half from Rome in the country town of Pescara, Fabio D'Aroma was torn between his two passions of art and football - until he visited an exhibition of paintings by the seventeenth century Baroque master Caravaggio in Rome. Inspired to become an artist, Fabio attended the Accademia Di Belle Arti in Rome where he wrote his graduation thesis on Caravaggio.

While studying, he was commissioned to paint two large-scale figurative paintings for the Church of the Convent in Spoltore. He also began to exhibit his work in the local galleries as well as those of Rome and Milan. After graduating in 1997, he transferred to Milan to work with the Bellagamba studio, where he painted landscapes and portraits for villas in Saudi Arabia. In 2001, he moved to Abruzzo and dedicated himself to the research of techniques in paint making and the realization of the human figure.

"I am fascinated by the transcendental qualities associated with figurative painting. From my study of the Old Masters, I set my figures against flat, clear and uncluttered backgrounds - the narrative thread of each painting dictates the method."

The paintings all start from spontaneous drawings. This process allows D'Aroma to approach each project in a liberal way and let it evolve naturally and unexpectedly.

"We are so saturated by images that starting from scratch by picking up a pencil and paper suddenly gained a new meaning to me."

D'Aroma has developed a different approach to representing the figure. Through the years, his figures naturally progressed towards the grotesque - away from the modern day cult of personality and obsession with individuality, personal characteristics are often pushed to the extremes and, for good or for bad, figures become such exaggerations of themselves that they can become grotesques. This is also a tension between the angularity of the drawings and the color of the paintings.

"I am motivated by the idea of reinterpreting the concept of chiaroscuro on both a practical and narrative level. My continuing interest in the intersection of art and daily life is informed by artists such as Caravaggio....."

Referring to his 'white backgrounds,' Fabio D'Aroma feels that it is inaccurate to represent modern reality where figures are viewed in a background or given context because they are so often not. The removal of the backgrounds allows him to focus all of my attention on the figure, which has always been his passion.

In April of 2001, he was chosen as the "emerging artist" from the region of Abruzzo for the "Pitture a Confronto" exhibition in Piazza di Spagna in Rome. Other Italian group exhibitions include "Il Fiume e la Memoria," "Insieme per l'arte" and "IncontrArte." In 2003, he moved to the United States and has worked and lived in Chicago and New York. In 2008 he won the Grand Prize in 'International Artist' magazine.