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Luigi Malice was born in Naples (but Calabria was his adopted home). After his artistic formation in Naples he has attended the Fine Arts Academy there as a pupil of Emilio Notte's he furthered his artistic formation under the leadership of Domenico Spinosa, one of the most representative luminary of the Italian Informal and the Southern Avant-guard Painting - including Renato Barisani, Lippi, etc. He initiated his career as a figurative painter of expressionistic origin, as we can see from his successful share with his painting "Still-life with figure" for the Michetti' Prize, or with "Ricordo di Spagna" ("MEMORY OF SPAIN") which he presented at the Posillipo Prize. Since the early 60 's he has skilfully approached "Informal'' avant-guard trend which springs from the U. S.A., "action painting" by Pollock, Hartung, Kline, Rothko, and from the French "Art autre " or "Informel ", which is represented by the works of Fautrier and Dubuffet Malice's necessary reference during that period was unmistakably Domenico Spinosa. In 1963 Luigi Malice, as state teacher in Reggio Calabria, a town where nineteenthcentury painting still dominated, divulgated the ideas of the international contemporary art. His new informal works, prove more than this previous Neapolitan works, warmer, tonality as a result of his direct assimilation of mediterranean colours, typical of the Calabrian landscape. The Artist devoted himself entirely to collective and one-man shows.

In 1967 he showed his works at Flaccovio, Gallery in Palermo and Santo Stefano Gallery in Venice. From 1967 on Luigi Malice had increased his interest in sculpture giving up - by degrees - his painting which in the late 60's had produced the interesting yield of "Monotipi". The Artist in fact is attracted by the so-called "visual-kinetic-art" an avant guard current which had been spreading through both Europe and in the States since the 50's. It was so that he achieved the TOP ART (the proper name of the current which sprang in the U. S.A. in the early 1966 and which Malice had joined since 1968) using chiefly waterproof cloth on shaped ply-wood, so making works closely resembling the experience of "shaped canvas" according to the visual studies in Milan by Castellani, Bonalumi, Scheggi, who continued Lucio Fontana's "Spazialism". But Luigi Malice during the Top Art time combines these innovative artistic expressions reflecting a human silhouette of Castellani's primary "conceptual" shapes (showing vivid, interest in Mario Ceroli's works as well) in so doing he reached results which are similar to the latest experiences of the eclectic and volcanic Pino Pascali (take view of "The Sea"). He's official recognised as a representative of Top Art after one-man show at the Colyseum in New York on September 1968.

From that moment onward Malice's studies has begun to exploit new modern materials such as plexiglass which he used for ready made panels during the early 70's. The Top Art period comes to an end when in 1984 the Artist prepared his retrospective in Milan. From that time on the Artist has joined neo-informal experience again achieving chromatic results defined by some art critics as "abstract impressionism" and "chromatic lyrism".

His artistic career has gone on side by side with his teaching. Malice became Principal in 1984 ofthe Fine Arts Academy in Reggio Calabria, where he tought Ornamental Sculpture till, the 70'S. After the end of his career as Principal in 1989 his one-man shows became more frequent and significant: he exibited at the Institute Francais "Le Grenoble" in Naples and an itinerant exhibition in Venice and Florence and most of all his oneman show named "PERCORSI 1965-1992 " ("Itineraries 1965-1992") exhibited at the Royal Palace in Naples in 1992.

In the last years he was also given several prizes: he was awarded the first prize at the Prima Biennale d'Arte Internazionale di 'Taverna 'Mattia Preti" in 1987; he received the golden medal in 1991 for the Premio Cilea; again thefirst prize in 1993 for the Premio Pizzo; the ''Premio Kiwanis Villa San Giovanni " in 1994 and the ''Premio Calabria" for all his works in 1997.

The works of the Artist are present in public and private Collections both in Italy and abroad.

From the novevembre 2001 the work "Metamorphosis 1979" can be admired (you see the figure) in the "MUSEO delle GENERAZIONI ITALIANE 'G.BARGELLINI'" di Pieve di Cento (Italy) .

Bibliography

Personal shows catalogs and monographs:

1966 - P. Barbieri (a cura di) "Malice e Tondo", cat. personale al "Circolo di Società" di Reggio Calabria

1967 - D. Gentilomo (a cura di) "Malice", cat. personale alla "Galleria Flaccovio" di Palermo

1967 - B. Ascoli Musatti (a cura di) "Malice" cat. personale alla "Galleria S.Stefano" di Venezia

1968 - F. Grasso (presentazione di) "Luigi Malice" cat. personale al Colyseum di New York

1971 - G. Romano (a cura di) "Luigi Malice", cat. personale alla galleria "La Vernice" di Reggio Calabria, Reggio Calabria 1971

1984 - E. Pietraforte (a cura di) "Malice", cat. personale alla galleria "Studio Palazzi" di Milano 1984

1987 - M. Bignardi - M.A. Mamone "D’Ambrosi, Malice, Monaco. Tre espressioni informali nel mezzogiorno" Editorial Staff, Salerno 1987

1990 - "Luigi Malice. Evocazioni informali" cat. personale all’Istituto Francese ‘Le Grenoble’ di Napoli , Napoli 1990

1992 - T.Trini (a cura di) "MALICE. Percorsi 1965-1992", cat. personale a Palazzo Reale Napoli

1999 - L. Barbera (a cura di) "LUIGI MALICE. Percorsi della Memoria 1959-1999" Gangemi Editore, Roma 1999

Principal collective shows catalogs :

1988 - F. Gallo (a cura di) "INDEX", catalogo mostra alla Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Paternò, Fabbri ed., Milano 1988

1984 - recensione mostra "Studio Palazzi" di Milano in "La Notte" del 21 /5/1984 , p.10

1985 - Anna Russano Cotrone "I silenzi di Malice" in "Corriere di Reggio" del 22/6/1985

1987 - G.Andreani "Malice e il lucus dell’arte" in "Il Mensile", n° 14, VII, 1987

1988 -C. Frazzetto "La pittura colta degli astrattisti" in "La Sicilia" del 17/3/1988

1990 -G.Pozzi "Informale. Luigi Malice ‘Evocazioni Informali’ presso Villa Pozzolini" in "L’Unità" dell’8/6/1990

1990 - C. Grassi ,recensione personale al "Grenoble" di Napoli in "Il Mattino" del 24/8/1990

1990 - G. Andreani "Malice artista della neoavanguardia informale" in "BRUTIUM", 14, ott. - dic. 1990

1991 - F. B. "Evocazioni informali di Luigi Malice" in "L’ARCHIVIO" nov. 1990, anno III, n°9, p.12

1992 -V.Trione "In cornice". Artisti vari. "Virtualità mediterranee" in "Il Mattino" del 10/11/1992

1992 - "Le opere di L.Malice allestite a Palazzo Reale" in "ROMA" del 10 dic. 1992, p.15

1992 - M.Vitiello "Malice/Il segno del fantastico" in "L’Artistico", Napoli, anno VII, n.1-2 genn./giugno 1992

1994 - "A Luigi Malice il Villa San Giovanni" in "Corriere di Reggio" del 17/6/1994

1994 - G. Selvaggi "Nei conti del Novecento tornano all’attivo i Premi Villa San Giovanni" in "Il Giornale d’Italia" del 24/6/1994

1994 - G. Andreani "Villa S.Giovanni.La nuova edizione" in "Eco d’Arte Moderna", n°91, agosto/sett.1993

Encyclopedias and general publications:

1969 - "Enciclopedia Universale della Pittura moderna S.E.D.A." Milano, 1969, vol. IV (ad vocem)

1972 - "Arte Italiana Contemporanea" ediz. La Ginestra, Firenze, 1972 (ad vocem)

1972 - "Pittura e Pittori Contemporanei"6,II, ed. Il Quadrato , 1972 (ad vocem)

1972 - Dizionario Biografico dei Meridionali (ad vocem)

1993 - A. D’Agostino "L’Arte" in "Reggio Calabria. Storia,cultura,economia" (a cura di F. Mazzi) Rubettino Editore , Soveria Mannelli1993, pp. 308-309

1991 - G.Di Genova "Storia dell’Arte Italiana. Generazione anni venti" Edizioni BORA, Bologna, 1991 vol. 4°

2000 - G. Di Genova "STORIA DELL'ARTE ITALIANA. Generazione anni trenta", Edizioni BORA, Bologna, 2000, vol. 5°, pp.41, 116-117, 635, illustr. p.190 e 1187

Principal television services:

1992 - TG3 Campania, december 1992 - RAI REGIONE (rewiew of solo-exibition "Percorsi 1965-'92" in Royal Palace, Naples)

1992 - TG Teleflegrea, december 1992 (reviews of the solo exhibition "Percorsi 1965-'92" in Royal Palace, Naples )

1999 - TG3 Calabria, 22 march 1999 - RAI REGIONE (reviews of the solo exhibition "Percorsi della Memoria.1959-1999" - Reggio Calabria)

1999 - TG TeleReggio, march 1999 (reviews of the solo exhibition "Percorsi della Memoria"-Reggio Calabria)

2000 - TG3 Calabria, July 2000 - RAI REGIONE (reviews of the solo exhibition Unicorno Gallery - Cosenza)

2005 - World Calabria Channel, april 2005 (interview of Piero Muscari about Luigi Malice) – n°22

2010 - TG3 Calabria,RAI REGIONE, 23 February 2010 - ( interview of Maria Luigia Cozzupoli)