Supporting Artists
CEA Foundation
By donating their works, the following artists have also contributed to the creation of the Foundation
GIOVANNA ALFEO
completed her art studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lecce. She has had numerous national and international art exhibitions. Her artistic career has been rounded out by public street art works. She has won several art competitions. She lives in Rome.
FRANCESCO BOSCO,
better known as FRANCISCO GARDEN, was born in 1977 in Cosenza and grew up in San Lorenzo del Vallo (CS). He graduated from the Art Institute of Castrovillari and continued his studies with a degree in DAMS (Department of Music, Music and Performing Arts) with a major in Multimedia. In 2009, he moved to Castelfranco Veneto (TV), where, thanks to a friend originally from Brazil, JORGE NUNES, he discovered a passion for clay. Inspiration, instinct, and the ability to shape forms led the artist to develop his own personal style. In 2012, he created the PYNTHANOMAY sculpture prize, awarded to journalist Luciano Musolino (newspaper "Diritto di cronaca", editor Emanuele Malilì Armentano). In 2014, he organized a solo sculpture exhibition entitled "DALLA TERRA," presented by Fausto Taverniti, director of Tg3 Basilicata, in collaboration with the Tg3 Calabria office. Reviews are by Alfredo Pasolino, international art critic. In 2015, he participated with four works in the International Contemporary Art EXPOMI 2015. The event's artistic director was art critic and historian Giorgio Grasso. In 2016, he moved to Tuscany, in the province of Prato, and created the "Il San Michele di Carmignano" trophy for the "Teatro in strada" (Street Theater). After a year-long stay and several artistic experiences in Tuscany, the artist returned to Calabria. In 2017, he participated in the "ARTE SENZA CONFINI" International Contemporary Art Award, curated by artist Giovanna Capraro and art critic and historian Giorgio Grasso. 2017 brought new opportunities. Portuguese artist Emanuel Aguiar immortalized Francisco Garden in his surrealist work titled "Artista." Meanwhile, he participated in other art exhibitions. That same year, he received an important recognition: the "Marco Fattori" Award for Francisco Garden as an emerging artist.
VALERIA BUZILAN,
known professionally as "Valery," was born and raised in Moldova. An innate passion for color led her to art school, where she later graduated from the Academy of Music, Theater, and Plastic Arts of Moldova. The torrents of world change brought her to Italy in 1999. She has been painting for over 30 years. Valeria Buzilan's work reflects the influences of academic art history, but she reworks them with a personal language. Her pictorial research is an example of true and excellent painting, but it is also clearly imbued with a strong emotional charge, which in her works, featuring the sea and horses, transforms expanses of water and marvelous animals into an exercise in style and skill that is never an end in itself. As an artist, she goes through various phases and experiences that in recent years have led her to appear at many events across the broader art world. She has held numerous group exhibitions in Golfo Aranci and Porto Rotondo. Rome, Venice, Ferrara, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Liguria, Mantua, Montecosaro, Milan, Cologno Monzese.
MARCO CAGNOLATI
Born in Boretto (RE) on March 15, 1959 – Studied: “Paolo Toschi” Art Institute in Parma, Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, Multipurpose Specialization in Mantua. Qualifications: Qualification to teach Art Education (Venturi Art Institute - Modena) and Painting Disciplines (Art High School - Bologna), Qualification in Competition and Diploma of High Teacher Qualification (Reggio Emilia). He taught “Life Drawing” and “Visual Education” at the “Gaetano Chierici” Art Institute in RE and “Art Education” in middle schools. Exhibitions: International “Artexpo” Latina, Bari, “Arte Fiera” Bologna, Paris, Basel, New York… In 2001 he exhibited at the Venice Biennale (Harald Szeemann) 49th International Art Exhibition “Platea dell'Umanità”, Tese delle Vergini, Pavilion n° 6 “Global Heli Art Tour” – Special Project by Michael Schmitz and joined the Poetic Bunker. In 2013 he exhibited at the “Campidoglio” in Rome (Sala della Protomoteca).
ANGELA CATUCCI
I was born in Luxembourg in 1961. In 1971, my family moved to Turi (BA), where I still live and paint. I have been a member of AIAPI, the International Association of Plastic Arts Italy, a UNESCO official partner since 2017. Artistic training: Istituto Statale D'Arte Bari (Ceramics section) 1975-1980, Accademia di Bella Arti di Bari (Scenography section) 1980-1984. Themes: My main themes are landscapes, "informal landscapes" that I prefer to call "INNER LANDSCAPES." My paintings are inspired by places, sometimes real, sometimes places of the soul... memories that a smell, a sound, bring back to mind, and in that moment a painting is born. I have also addressed social issues, such as some recent attacks that have overturned our certainties; as well as the desperation of refugees, the denied childhood. My research in monochrome is also fundamental. I use a mixed technique: stucco, cement, sand, fragments of various origins, gold leaf, copper leaf...
MARIA MADDALENA CICCIU'
Maria Maddalena Cicciù, aka Mia, born in Reggio Calabria on June 19, 1963, is a "gentle" and versatile artist who pours into her art all her emotions for the beauty of nature and for life. She frequented the studio of the Calabrian fantasy painter Maestro Cristoforo Taglieri (Crista), who recognized in her a particular ability to analyze color; from him she learned various techniques and received the inspiration that would lead her to undertake a personal philosophical and spiritual quest. Mia captures the most intimate "animus" of things and conveys their essence. Her painting opens onto the broad expanses of the soul, enriched by typically Mediterranean lights full of warmth and natural elements. Each of her works is a metaphor for life in an evocative, almost dreamlike tale. An artist with a fragile appearance, Mia is so strong that she transforms her passion into an ever-renewed source of energy and hope.
“To embark on a journey begins with a scream, without asking why. Michael's scream reaches you, waiting unheard, leaving signs and dreams to be realized, in eyes filled with tears to be cherished. I'll be right back, and you're back! Here you are.”
FABIO D'AGOSTINO
I was conceived on a rumbling earth. In the heat of the placenta, I danced the Irpinia earthquake. I was born in Enna on May 11, 1981, and lived in Sicily until I was 13, excluding three years in Puglia and nine months in Sardinia. With my family, I followed my father's work travels, so I lived for two years in the province of Bologna and then in Voghera, in the province of Pavia, where I studied and graduated in Electronics and Telecommunications. I followed my family's artistic inclinations (my father graduated from art school and my mother restored antique furniture), but I dedicated myself to theater and later photography. In 2014, I moved to Fermo, where I deepened my passion for photography and theater and where I began to experiment with materials and ideas. Sculpture became predominant, transformed into an expressive urge, becoming a constant search and an excuse to study, explore myself, and evolve.
RAFAEL ESPADA
Born in Buenos Aires in 1947, he moved to Milan in 1970, where he lives and works. A self-taught visual artist, he attended painting and sculpture courses at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. He has exhibited in various venues in Europe, North and South America, and his works are held in private collections in Italy, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Ukraine, and the United States.
ANNAMARIA FIORE
was born in Bari on April 16, 1983. From an early age, she showed a marked talent for drawing and the use of color. She graduated from the Giuseppe DeNittis State Art School in Bari and earned a degree in 2009 in "Sciences and Technologies for the Diagnostics and Conservation of Cultural Heritage" from the Faculty of Science Campus in Bari. Despite choosing different university courses, she has never strayed from painting. Since the age of twenty, she has actively participated in various competitions and exhibitions in Puglia and beyond, culminating in a solo exhibition in her hometown of Giovinazzo, where she receives her first critical acclaim and a catalog is published. Today, together with her photographer husband, they have set up a company called PHOPì, where photography meets painting.
FABRIZIO GAVATORTA
studied art. Born in Turin in 1970, painting is his profession. He is known in the art world as the "Painter of Shadows" because many of his works feature black silhouettes juxtaposed against brightly colored backgrounds. In recent years, his painting has been returning to its roots. The pictorial cycle that brought him fame is called "Black Shadows." His current artistic focus is on "Contemporary Princesses," works that bring his painting back to the academic figurative style. He has had some very important solo exhibitions and works internationally.
LILIANA ANGELA GRASSI
Liliana Angela Grassi or Lї Spiritual Artist
My formless works and my "Sur-reality" journey: Painting, Photographing, Poetating... a search for insights and signs through Art in my restless evolution. After years of research, I have developed a new expressive method to rediscover the creative impulse and express one's potential, also using creativity as art therapy through the "JOY OF ART" workshop for both adults and children. ALWAYS CREATE. NEVER IMITATE. Art for knowing, Art for learning, Art for communicating, Art for growing. Art where the "I" becomes "We." Together to build the magical bridge to the Heart. Together to know, to share the wonderful space of our Creativity. Together to discover that painting, playing, and dancing brings Love, Knowledge, and Awareness into family life. Together to rediscover a forgotten language through painting. Together to experience a unique and precious moment of Joy and Beauty immersed in Nature with all five senses... sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. Only by creating do you become part of the great creativity of the Universe.
KNOWLEDGE and AWARENESS through ART… OBJECTIVE ART!
Objective art is meditative; subjective art is entirely mental. The maker of objective art has nothing to expel; he is completely empty, clean. From that silence, from that emptiness, love and compassion are born. And from that silence, the possibility of creativity arises.
“I paint the invisible. I photograph the visible.” (Man Ray)
MARISA IERARDI
was born in Petilia Policastro (Kr), but lives and works in Turin. Fascinated by art, she began her research by studying acrylic and watercolor painting. Her subjects are landscapes and figurative, and her paintings reveal a passion for color and the exploration of the painterly line, which, after several years, culminated in oil painting, the medium that best represents her. Her ongoing pictorial and introspective exploration has led her in recent years to experiment with a painting technique with a highly personal style, giving rise to a new abstract figurative approach. She has participated in numerous art competitions and fairs, as well as in group and solo exhibitions.
AGOSTINO LIBRANDI
I've always loved modern art, especially pop art. From the very beginning, I wanted to create paintings, exploring a personal technique called "symphonies of color," as I like to call it. I began by portraying purely imaginary female faces and bodies, then experimented with the real faces of people who commissioned me to paint their portraits. Through the "face creases," the gazes and expressions of each individual, I perceive their joy, sweetness, sensuality, courage, and transcendence, and I translate it all onto the canvas to make each person a unique individual, beyond logic and time, with a face that stirs and brings out a hidden inner being.
LETIZIA LO MONACO
, an artist with a humanistic background, expresses a concept of art as a highly personal expression of the uniqueness that every human being carries within. Constant meanings in her conceptual artistic journey find their humus in the intrinsic biological-cultural conflict of the female condition and in the duality underlying every manifestation of life.
GIULIANO MANTOVANI
Self-taught, I began my career in the 1980s, experimenting with various forms of expression until I settled on modern figurative painting, primarily using mixed media. In the late 1990s, out of curiosity and experimentation, I began to explore informal art, which I became passionate about for the sense of freedom it evoked.
A few lines to tell you about myself:
…I collect situations to fix in my memory and then express, through color, the essence of things and the atmosphere of that moment, trying to convey on the canvas, beyond the shape and color, the mood of the moment.
GIULIANA MARCHESI
Giuliana Marchesi was born in Manerbio (BS) on October 30, 1958. She attended painting courses at the Castello school in Milan, and expresses herself with a surrealism that uses shapes and colors.
SALVATORE MORGANTE
Salvatore Morgante was born in Agrigento in 1976. An eclectic, self-taught artist, he has been interested in painting for several years through a continuous and incessant exploration of style, materials, techniques, and forms of expression. He describes himself as a spontaneous aesthete, a lover of matter, a seeker of emotions, a photographer of states of the soul; but also and above all, a "normal" artist, whose normality becomes a filter between himself and others, in pursuit of a reflective individualism that rejects the concept of the "crazy" and "dissolute" artist in favor of the artist-man who is inevitably forced to create in order to be alive. In 2016, he won the first edition of the Michele Cea Award as emerging artist of the year.
"I was captivated by Michele's works, and through them I was able to understand the man, his family, his thoughts, and his research. I discovered an artist who lived art as a true protagonist, designing his body as well as his works, influencing the soul of those who observe them.".
TERESA CLAUDIA PALLOTTA
Born in Milan in 1953. Graduated from the State Art Institute of Anzio with a high school diploma in Applied Arts, Textiles section. She lives in Introd, a small town in the Aosta Valley, where, with the help of a pencil, she manages to maintain a dialogue with the outside world.
I met Michele Cea in Milan at a shared artistic event. It was a brief but intense encounter, where Michele immediately revealed his gentle yet determined spirit, his desire to live life to the fullest. And that's how I like to remember him... in full swing.
MARIO PASSARELLO
Mario Passarello, born in Monteverdi Marittimo (PI) on May 10, 1954, lives and works in Agrigento. Strong, intense colors characterize the ever-moving forms of Passarello's work. His first exhibition dates back to 1978, and his work has continued unceasingly ever since. In 1986, he was at the Lamezia Terme Biennial, followed by important exhibitions in Ischia, Ferrara, Sanremo, Castelvetrano, Rome, and Abano Terme. In 2000, he exhibited in Madrid, where he received considerable public and critical acclaim. An eclectic artist, in the 1990s he embarked on a career that led him to the theater, as an actor and artistic director. He graduated with honors in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Agrigento and continued his career until arriving in New York, where he exhibited successfully at the Broadway Gallery in Manhattan. In 2002, together with artist and violinist friend Alessandra Cuffaro, he created the series "Paganini's Caprices," a project that culminated in 2014 with an exhibition at The Music School of Delaware (USA). He is the creator and promoter of the Manifesto of Metadimensionalism (2015); to date, the movement brings together 14 nationally renowned artists. Oil, acrylic, watercolor, tempera, palette knife, and brush are the tools of his soul. A deeper approach to human relationships and the world around him, born from a journey of introspection that began by chance, led him to holistic disciplines. Today, Mario Passarello is also a Shiatsu and Reiki instructor, as well as a meditation teacher. This journey, combined with other events in his personal life, has significantly influenced his art, allowing the birth of a unique form of expression that unmistakably characterizes his work.
ELISABETTA PICCIRILLO
was born in Milan in 1961. In recent years, she has frequented Milan's artistic circles, taking part in exhibitions and events, where she met Michele Cea. A friendship and empathy immediately developed between the two, despite their age difference. Respecting their differences, art serves as a common thread, so much so that she overcame Michele's untimely loss by striving to publicize his art and profound thinking through the media and social media with the Facebook page GLI AMICI DI MICHELE CEA, a page Elisabetta strongly desired as a royal tribute to her friend Michele and his works.
“Michele, spirit and essence, ethereal and eternal, a meteor of pure life and uncompromising art.”
STEFANO FEFFO PORRU
Stefano “Feffo” Porru was born in Oristano in September 1977., trying to never abandon his passions even while taking on a more lucrative job involving the finishing of public and private buildings. He is self-taught and continually developing and deepening his training; he takes courses, visits numerous exhibitions, studies and reads art books and magazines that enrich his pictorial knowledge. In painting, he dedicates himself to abstract expressionism, conceptual/informal and an abstract figurative style tending towards the naive, trying to detach himself from any labelable influence. Only in 2016 did he begin to publicly exhibit and present his paintings, participating in numerous group art exhibitions in Sardinia and the Italian peninsula.
FRANCESCO ROSINA
Constantly evolving, driven by a creative impulse and a relentless pursuit of a satisfying and fulfilling balance: this is Francesco Rosina's painting. Characterized by bold strokes and accentuated chromatic effects, it overwhelms like a violent wave, conveying the most intimate emotions, tied to real moments and people in the artist's life. He attended the Antonio Corradini Art Institute in Este (Padua), earning a Master of Art degree in 1997. He then continued his artistic research, experimenting with techniques, the use of color, and the study of forms, which led him to develop innovative works.
"The unexpected is the source of my creativity. There are setbacks so powerful that they become opportunities."
"Technique, style, and artistic movement are simply a universal language for communicating art. There's no definition to what I do. Art is simply creating, not destroying."
VITTORIA SALATI
Born in the Parma Apennines, she lives and works in Cambiago (MI). Vittoria Salati's works are characterized by being hand-engraved on wood or MDF panels, then painted with acrylics, depicting a variety of subjects, with clear, well-defined figures and bold, vibrant colors. The frame, an integral part of the panel itself, is also original.
Since 2009, her husband Vanni Mondadori has collaborated with her, handling the engraving portion of the works. Vittoria draws, Vanni engraves, and Vittoria completes the work with painting.
NICOLA SORIANI
Graduated from the Paul Klee art high school in Genoa. Painter, sculptor, ceramist, creator and creator of social installations. Main installations are the trilogy 365 SUICIDES dedicated to the victims of the economic crisis (2013-2014-2015) and Nobody is safe (2016) created to remember the victims of terrorism.
He is an active collaborator with various artistic groups in the Ligurian region: UP ARTE BADALUCCO (Imperia), ARTE SENZACONFINI (Arma di Taggia), BADALUCCO ART GALLERY, NUOVA PICCOLA GALLERIA (Genoa), GALLERIA MERIGGI (Genoa), ASSOCIAZIONE CULTURALE LA TELA (Genoa), FONDAZIONE MICHELE CEA (Milan). CERCHIO CROMATICO in Genoa, where he has works on permanent display. His CV also includes the Murales in Genoa Legaccio in 2015 and in Badalucco in 2017. He has held group and solo exhibitions in many Italian cities. In 2011, he crossed national borders by winning Third Prize at the International Artist's Book Expo, which led him to exhibit in Osnabruk (Germany), Paris with Nabila Fluxus, and Queen art studio in Padua.
LUCIANA TRAPPOLINO
was born in Orvieto on February 15, 1964. She graduated in Economics and Business from Sapienza University in Rome (Italy). She currently lives in Lecce, where she works for a public company. Her passion for photography has been ingrained in her since childhood. She became a photographer by vocation and has lived perpetually with her SLR for over thirty years. She has participated in numerous exhibitions and won several competitions. Some of her photos have been published in major photography magazines, including National Geographic. Her photography is a travelogue, an ethnic testimony to the customs and traditions of other peoples, some of which are being lost due to Western influence. She loves to focus on portraiture, especially spontaneous portraits, born from chance encounters with people, seeking to capture their beauty and emotions beyond mere appearance.
CETTI TUMMINIA
Cetti Tumminia was born in Sassuolo (MO) in June 1977. In 1996, she earned a Master of Arts degree and in 1998 a diploma in Advertising Graphics and Photography from the A. Venturi Art Institute in Modena. Despite this, her journey into figurative art was reborn several years later: at the end of 2013, at an unexpected moment. Returning to what she recognizes as her true essence, she resumed painting consistently, choosing primarily graphite and oil paint, while experimenting with a variety of pictorial mediums and supports. Since 2017, she has been an AIAPI / International Association of Plastic Arts Italy / UNESCO Official Partner artist.
