On Friday, September 3, 2010 at 5 pm, the exhibition "Angelo Titonel: Playing Skittles" - featuring some 60 works painted over the course of the last three years - will be inaugurated in the evocative setting of the Antichi Magazzini del Sale in Siena's Palazzo Pubblico (Piazza del Campo, 1 - Siena, Italy).
The topic tackled here is seen as a metaphor. Far from a mere representation of external reality - epidermal, apparent, the offspring of a consumer society in real time - it is a further development on the exploration first embarked upon by the artist in the 1970s, on Man and, consequently, the human body, as a "cosmic sign", a reflection of the order of the created universe; an "intermediary" par excellence; a "presence to the world".
As art historian Marisa Vescovo highlights in her introduction to the exhibition catalogue ("Angelo Titonel, Or the Body's Writing"), Titonel's explorations draw us closer to a psychic reality - proximity to and distance from things and feelings related superficially to a contingent reality of, in fact, consumption - capable of reawakening experiences that are subjective and thus disturbing. Since we are not oblivious to it, these realities force us to think and to relate our inner dimension to that "objective" world which Titonel depicts.
As Vescovo writes: "Art has the advantage of moving us closer to those 'aesthetic' products that are one of the most visible signs of [art's] function as a mediator between sense and thought".
A substantial group of works on show depict hands that concentrate within Man and man's body, even in the union of gesture and mimicry, a force that is highly unique in its ability to communicate and reveal thoughts. It is no coincidence that all civilisations throughout history have used and use the language of gesture. Psychoanalysts compare the hand to the eye that "sees", in Buddhist mudras the positioning of the fingers symbolically represents inner attitudes, even the number of fingers shown (four or five) approaches Jung's quaternary evolution of the soul or may hint at the pentagonal harmony of the Pythagoreans.
"Signs of Time", "The Antipodes", "The Gesture", "The Cathedral", "Ancient Warrior", "Pas de Deux" and "The Anatomy Laboratory" are some of these (polished and smooth) hand-architectures, painted masterfully by Titonel, that belie the artist's inner sentiments, a sensibility that flows with interrogative force over the membrane of his work.
Another group of works - including "Playing Skittles", "The Performance", "Hiding", "Laughing", "Bitter-Sweet", "Burqa", "Concealing" and "Inside the Habit" - displays the dissonances and contradictions of a society that wants us to conform, like automatons or robots. Whereas other works - including "Jet Over the Artist's House", "Madonna", "Resurrection" and "Mutation" - inform us that the hidden face, not unlike the hand, is the "mirror of the soul" that reveals our emotions, feelings and secret thoughts. And further reveals Titonel's entire relationship with the world, how he sees and feels it, his education, environment, psychological make-up and the way he offers himself to us.

Short Biography
Angelo Titonel was born in Cornuda, Italy. At a young age he moved to Milan, where he graduated from the "Castello Sforzesco" School of Applied Arts. He began working as a graphic designer and art director in international advertising agencies but later abandoned this career to devote himself to painting.
His first exhibit came in 1964, in Velbert (Essen), Germany. He then moved to Rome where, during the 1970s, he was recognized as one of the leading figures of Italian magic realism.
Titonel's numerous exhibitions include shows at, among others, the Museo Civico of Bologna (Italy, 1973); the Museum of Contemporary Art of Skopije (Macedonia, 1974); the European Parliament in Strasbourg (France, 1994); the Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome (2001); and the Lausanne Olympic Museum (Switzerland, 2005).
Many other solo exhibitions have taken place throughout Europe and the United States over the years. Titonel has also been invited to several international Biennial and Quadrennial events and has been awarded numerous prizes and rave reviews.
His many prestigious commissions include the Quirinal Palace, the residence of the Italian head of State, for which he has painted portraits of the presidents of the Italian Republic and key historical characters, including Giuseppe Garibaldi, Giuseppe Mazzini, Massimo D'Azeglio and the Count of Cavour. He was also commissioned by the Vatican to paint the official portrait of the current pope, Benedict XVI.
Upon request from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, he created a self-portrait for the Gallery's collection entitled "Artist Self-Portraits".
Numerous Italian and foreign critics have written about Titonel's work.