salvatore mangione

I’m just learning about this ‘Salvo’ character. Salvatore Mangione was born in Turin in 1947 and lived there until his death in 2015. He was known professionally as Salvo.

I came across one of his images and though it was not 100% my style, I was still drawn into the complex imaginary landscape.

Salvo spent a lot of time finding himself. In his public archives, you can see a lot of really bad conceptual and performance art pieces. He also spent a lot of time before his ‘style’ as a painter emerged. I won’t post any of his misguided images here.

It looks like Salvo flipped a switch and he began to paint these really strange landscapes. These paintings would turn me off most of the time because the colors are sickly gush and the shapes are too simple for me to personally be comfortable with.

What makes these paintings work is he pulls out and creates a sense of space that is kind of remarkable in my opinion. Most of his landscapes have several step backs. I like how my eyes move from one spot on the canvas to another.

Salvo is never fully realizing the potential in my opinion, but he does offer up something that I don’t think too many artists do. When I look at one of his better paintings, I feel like I could step into his work at several points. Salvo’s work when it gets complex enough allows for a sense of space I don’t feel like I have encountered in too many artists works.

Bror Hjorth

Toby Rosenbloom