RENAISSANCE MAN
Righetti Arte owner and artist MICHELE RIGHETTI talks about his work and influences.
Where are you from and what brought you to Singapore?
I’m originally from Italy, near Florence. My first visit to Singapore was actually in 1997 and it was love at first sight. Little did I know that, four years down the track, I would marry a Singaporean girl while staging my first exhibition in Melbourne, Australia. We subsequently got married and lived in Italy.
In 2006, as fate would have it, a Singapore gallery owner came to Italy and chose my works to open their new gallery in Takashimaya. The rest, as they say, is history. I’m grateful to have since found great demand for my work in Singapore, and in the region.
What can people expect from a visit to Righetti Arte?
Visitors will see a new collection of my pop art, as well as a collection of outstanding work by selected young Chinese emerging artists, including sculptures and paintings. They will also be able to see several genres of my work from over the past 15 years.
Tell us more about your pop art.
In the last few years, I have travelled extensively in California, New York, Miami and many parts of Asia, and this latest collection is an expression of my visual travel journal.
I have melded modern and latter-day icons, different cultural nuances, urban life and personal experiences into visual striking and detailed narrative paintings, which I call “Nouveau Pop Art”.
There are also a number of my favourite childhood characters from the 1970s and 1980s, such as Popeye and Super Mario, and memories of Japanese cartoons of the 1980s that form the story of each of my paintings.
Were you always going to be an artist?
I was from a family of master bakers and, as the eldest son, it was suggested that I study accountancy and business to take over the family business. However, my interest in high fashion and costume design for theatre led
me to study fashion and textile design. After a time freelancing as a textile designer with clients such as Hermès and Versace I became restless and bored, and the love for art beckoned.
This led me to study fine arts in Florence under exCzechoslovakian maestro Stano Dusík and it was from there that my career as a fine artist was launched.
What and where inspires you in Singapore?
I love the flavours, colours, sights and smells of not just Singapore but Southeast and North Asia. Being based here means I’m just a stone’s throw from all of Asia, and the proximity and ease with which I can move between these countries has allowed me to paint and sculpt in a dimension that I have never yet realised was possible until now.
5A East Coast Avenue 9754 5470 | righettiart.com