Carmine C. Sabbatella Born in 1982, he lives and works between Milan and Sala Consilina (SA). He graduated with honors at Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Visual Arts under the guidance of Master Stefano Pizzi and specialized in Contemporary Art and Anthropology of the Sacred with the critic Andrea B. Del Guercio and theologian Msgr. Pierangelo Sequeri. From 2003 to 2008 was tutor and since 2009 is Image Designer at Brera Academy. The expressive path prepared by Sabbatella during these years of intensive research and investigation has seen a proliferation within different thematic areas and plastic choice factors ranging from stone to iron, digital printing and photography. Sabbatella occurs in the system of contemporary art with an artistic and cultural project, strictly characterized by the three expressive technical components, which interacts with the different values of aesthetic enjoyment.
Chicco Sabbatella do you see art as a language or as an inspiration?
Art is a language, just like any other. The idea of creating art for a viewer is the incentive that every artist chases: we want to share a feeling with distracted, yet curious, observers. They might not understand fully what they see but, at the same time, they try to find a personal meaning in it, transforming it through the lens of their own experience and managing to understand it in its instinctive simplicity.
How did your career start?
Art has always been a sort of tangible emotion for me, a constant presence in my family. My first sculptures took shape in my father’s workshop: a tireless and extraordinary ironworker, he was my first mentor. Then came Milan and the Accademia di Brera, further steps in my intense, twenty-year-long artistic journey, where research and study have become paramount.
From a dream to reality. You came a long way from the first moment when you realized what you wanted to be.
“If you can dream it, you can do it”: Walt Disney was right. I am a dreamer, which sometimes makes me forget reality. This balancing act between reality and dreaming keeps me in a kind of colorful limbo that acts as a filter to the greyness and the monotony of life. I have always wanted a colorful life, and art has given me just that.
You use different media in your art. Which one is dearest to your heart?
Thinking of art as a research process involves a certain degree of selectiveness: whenever I want to share an idea, my task is almost always to remove something, to simplify, both shape- and concept-wise. Whether I choose a meticulous engraving or a stone monolith, the final result always has to reflect a compromise between three different components: the author, the work and the viewer.
If all three parties feel free to express themselves, the work will have a life of its own. Throughout the years, it will able to tell a story time and time again, just like the great art masterpieces that we have inherited from our ancestors do: whether painted on canvas or carved in marble, their language is able to evolve and communicate something to us.
You have created many different kinds of works. How important is it for you to be able to turn your vision into a work of art?
Matters, volumes, and large-scale projects fascinate me. Designing and developing an idea has only one goal: the tangible realization of it, and when this happens, when the viewers want to caress the matter, to make it their own, that’s when the process is fully realized and the game starts. Creating large-scale public projects is never easy: we must take into account who will live in those places, as well as the nature of the place itself. Such projects often become symbols, so they present a heavy load of responsibility, which can also become a pleasant challenge.
How much did your background influence your artistic training and language choices?
I come from the province of Salerno, in Southern Italy, and consider myself almost an Etruscan. The influence of my land of origin can be identified in many of my works: it is a telluric, strong and cheerful place – all of these feelings are clearly visible in my work. At the same time, identity is constantly changing: the next ideas I will come across will contaminate and expand my cultural baggage, and I will try to absorb them and turn them into new works.
Your latest project: a column on Excellence Magazine. Can you tell us about your ideas and expectations?
Sharing and researching are the key elements of my artistic journey: any new experience will breathe new life into it.
I tend to be a workaholic because of the satisfactions that my work brings, and I think art is the most beautiful reward: living, breathing, sharing one’s own artistic vision, becoming a symbol and a promoter of messages.
Through this project, I want to use art and communication to reflect on social issues, using and exploiting the natural curiosity that we all share, even though we are often distracted by life and its obstacles. I want to make my readers smile and promote a brief moment of light-hearted reflection through art and, why not, through #inartechicco, the name I chose for my column.
