From Palermo to Fribourg

Antonello Messina is an Italian and Swiss painter, sculptor and musician.
He was born in Palermo on July 24th, 1969, and in January 2019 he became a citizen of the Swiss city of Fribourg. As a child he showed remarkable talent for visual arts (painting, drawing), as well as exceptional musical gifts. He started studying piano, solfeggio and music theory as a self-taught at the age of ten. He subsequently complemented these studies with harmony and composition. He graduated from the "II Liceo Artistico" of Palermo in 1989, and attended painting classes in the Academy of Arts of the same town. He subsequently completed his artistic training with a complementary year in the "I Liceo Artistico E. Catalano" in the years 1994-1995. His love for drawing, painting and history of art naturally led him to approach the artistic and literary milieux of his town and region.Along with his path as a painter, Antonello Messina pursued his career as a highly esteemed musician. These two means of expression have blended to create a lifelong journey of exploration: while concerts and music tours have led him all over the country, he has been called to create paintings and sculptures on commission: clay, chalk, ceramics and reproductions of paintings of all epochs (the study of human anatomy drawing techniques being of fundamental value in this period). All the techniques he learned to master have gradually left place to the artist’s preferred means of expression: oil painting. Between 1996 and 1999 he specialised in restoration works and reproductions; during this time he further refined his techniques in reproduction, by means of materials like distemper for Renaissance’s works, and acrylic colours, synthetic enamel and oils for contemporary works. His paintings’ exhibition in march 2000 on the occasion of the World Exhibit at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York, where he presented both original works and reproductions, is a very significant stage of his artistic career. In october 2011 Exhibition of paintings and drawings in Japan. Tatebayashi City - " L'autre Maison - Nishi No Hora ", Ashikaga City - " Citizens'Hall ", Tokyo - " Promise Servise Plaza ", Tokyo - " Japan Art Gallery ". In july 2013 Exhibition of paintings in Switzerland. Marly - " Plexus Art Gallery ". June 2016: he appears in the video clip "Democratic Set" in the Belluard International Festival in Fribourg introducing his project "Le visage des Bolzes". Between June and October 2017 personal exhibition at the Château Salavaux, and in December of the same year personal exhibition at Espace 25 in Fribourg. Between November 2019 and January 2020 Antonello held an important solo exhibition in the historic Schadau Castle in Thun. Starting from January 8th 2022 until April 30th, Antonello's paintings will once again be exhibited in Fribourg at the historic Kellerpoche Theater, a personal selection of views and landscapes of the city.