Arrigo Musti
He was born in Palermo, Sicily, in 1969.
At the age of 28, he felt that his original passion had remained latent and was determined to study, self-taught, painting techniques and human anatomy. So he left the legal profession once and for all.
“Myth” as a metaphor of risk of corruption of mores is the subject of most interest to Arrigo.
He has participated in numerous personal and group exhibitions in contemporary art galleries, and museums in Italy, France, the Netherlands, England, and the United States.
In 2008 Christie’s auctioned some paintings by Arrigo in Holland, The Hague.
Nel 2009 year a personal exhibition, “Rain” was presented by Maurizio Calvesi, was run at Wright State University, Ohio, USA. Calvesi defined his works “… a new page in painting and not only Sicilian.”
In 2011, he participated in the 54th Venice Biennale - Venice Arsenal - on a choice, as best
Italian artist, by the, Oscar-winning film director Giuseppe Tornatore.
A solo exhibition “Nameless” was run at the Italian Chamber of Deputies (Montecitorio-Rome), in 2012.
Many works of his are permanently displayed in museums, public space and private collections. Among the places where they are displayed is the International Criminal Court of the Hague (United Nations), the Orestiadi Foundation at Gibellina (Trapani - Sicily), and the Guttuso Museum (Palermo province) Sant’Elia Foundation (Palermo) and Lanza Branciforte Castle in Trabia (PA).
In 2012 he was a finalist in the UNESCO world contest "Art and Bioethics with exhibitions in Texas, New York City Rome and Houston.
In Italian Capital, at the Chamber of Deputies, he received the international Italy-USA 2014 prize of the homonymous Foundation.
In 2014 a solo exhibition of his work was run at the Contemporary Museum in Villa Torlonia in Rome, curated by Lorenzo Canova.
With his wife, the architect Anna Russo, he also designs a line of interior fittings and majolica furniture, for J&Well, which are displayed at specialist trade fairs in Italy (Ottagono Magazine 264) and abroad International Mebel Kiev.
Catalogues of Arrigo Musti's works are present in many bookstores (Mondadori and Feltrinelli) and libraries around the world, including the Yad Vashem library in Israel (Impop Art).
His works have been the subject of numerous exhibition catalogues and have been reviewed in Italian and international art and design magazines, monthly and daily newspapers, and dozens of Italian and foreign publications, including one by UNESCO and “The Washington Post” about his Origin exhibition at the Watergate Gallery in Washington D.C. USA in november 2018.
Arrigo in 2019, in collaboration with Luce Studio by Norman Vitale, with professional and non-professional actors shoots a short film set in Sicily.
Arrigo Musti lives and works partly in Rome and partly in Palermo (Sicily).