Interview by Jimon

1-Where did you grow up and where do you reside and work currently?  I was born and raised in Livorno, a port city in Tuscany, I currently live in a village outside Livorno.

2-How would you describe Riccardo Vitiello?  I’m a reserved, introverted, sensitive person with a British sense of humour.

3-When did you first start making art and what lead you to start?  I’ve always been drawing but I started painting on canvases 10 years ago, probably in response to my father’s death (my mother had passed away 10 years earlier), that pain encouraged me to look for a deeper more direct form of communication. 

4-Did you have any training for your art or is it inherent?  I didn’t study art because my parents wouldn’t let me.

5-Best advice you ever received in regards to your art?  To simply do what I like and never give up.

6-What influences you as an artist?  I actually don’t attend a lot of art exhibition and I’m not passionate about any artist in particular, to avoid being too influenced. I like to think that I’m guided by my state of mind and by the instinct.

7-Your paintings seem to be extremely intricate and time consuming. What is the origin of this work?  (smiles) My style, as I said before, reflects my state of mind, apparently I’m a complicated person who needs a lot of time and attention.

8-What is the longest you have spent creating a painting? I paint in a fast and compulsive way so I don’t spend too much time on the same canvas. Each artwork is like a photograph that describes the state of being at that moment, so to drag the execution out for too long would lead to a sort of inconsistency with the starting point.

9-Why make art?  As I was saying, I think that in my case art has satisfied a need of mine for communication and exteriorization during a difficult time in my life, afterwards it has become a sort of addiction.

10-What does Riccardo Vitiello dream about?  I dream about painting fo as long as possible.

11-Tell us something about the art world that you want to see changed?  I would want art and self expression to be taught from an early age so that they could become an important part of self growth.

12-How do you describe success as an artist?  When you stop asking yourself if what you create impresses other people.

13-Do you have a place/person/thing that you visit for inspiration?  Nothing special, but living in the countryside the closeness to nature can stimulate me, or maybe not.

14-If you could have dinner with 3 artists living/dead who would be at your table? Salvador Dalí, Alfred Hitchcock, Ennio Morricone.

15-Name three things you can’t live without in your studio? Cigarettes, music and camera.

16-How would someone find you on social media?  Instagram @riccardovitiello.art

17-Please name the first thing that comes to your mind while reading the following:

Art= Soul

Food= too much

Sports= what?

Politics= illusion

Poor= always

God= a side

Rich= few

Luxury= drug

Sex= breath

Picasso= edges

Religion= need