Peppino Campanella Biography
Born in Polignano a Mare (Ba), at the age of twenty he moved to Florence where in 1988 he graduated in Architecture. During his studies he became passionate about photography and collaborated for three years with Andreas Bossi, a Florentine fashion photographer. After graduating, he returned to his native town where he currently lives and works, alternating his passion for photography, art and design with his freelance profession. Following some studies on one of his illustrious fellow citizens - the great Italian Pop Art artist Pino Pascali, who died prematurely in 1969 - the attraction for the sea, the countryside, and the forms of nature more generally, increases with renewed curiosity. Collector of stones worked by farmers and sailors, ardent supporter of the reuse of materials, the idea of "giving light to stone" began to develop in him. His fate is discovered by chance: a poet friend of his, Guido Lupori, asks him to make a lamp. So he began, almost for fun, thanks to his innate curiosity, to assemble stones, glass and shells worked from the sea and the land, and took part in some exhibitions. The first, of a more conceptual nature, push him to experiment with elements and shapes and, reusing poor materials, he begins to play with chiaroscuro, while the objects begin to light up. The first applications of this research are aimed at the Theatre. He created some stage lamps for the companies of the “Teatro delle Vigne” of Genoa, “Rosso Tiziano” of Naples and “Ariele” of Bari. Almost as a challenge, having abandoned his profession as an architect, he moved to an old oil mill overlooking the sea owned by his family, and began to create objects made of stone, glass and lead, which he later replaced with tin. Glass, which Peppino Campanella sees as "solid water", becomes the protagonist of his creations thanks to its ability to spread extraordinarily bright effects. His works, suspended between art and design, move from an excessive, almost Arabesque, decoration to an ever greater research aimed at minimizing the luminescence of the elements. His objects are not intended to illuminate, but to create atmosphere, to evoke the sea, the sky, the dawn and the sunset and... to amaze. His research is currently aimed in this direction. Always far from the laws of criticism and the art market, his fame is the result of his passion for his work and tenacious self-promotion. His lamps have traveled around the world, are in the most exclusive exhibition spaces and have also appeared in some Italian films such as: “What girls don't say” by Carlo Vanzina, “Faccia di Picasso” by Massimo Ceccherini, “Blood alive ” by Edoardo Winspeare, “Denti” by Gabriele Salvatores and “La Febbre” by Alessandro D'Alatri, his friend.
