Antonino Stroscio

Also showing in the main house: Inspired by the Past.

The Brew House at Guildford House Gallery is showing this solo exhibition of works by Antonino Stroscio; a well recognised Italian naïve style painter whose art has been widely exhibited and the subject of several media references in Italy, France and Switzerland.

Antonino (or Nino as he is commonly known), was born in 1931 on the small island of Lipari in Sicily and emigrated to Geneva in 1955 to work as a barber. Fascinated by Giotto throughout his childhood, he developed a passion for painting very early in life. The self-taught artist, slowly but surely transformed from a barber to a painter. Nino would paint between customers and late into the evening. His inspirations were drawn from nature, people, landscapes and dreams and it was these that he used to create his own unique naïve style.

In 1985, Nino was the subject of much media admiration on the Swiss national television channel TSR (Télévision Suisse Romande). In December of the same year, the artist received a personal letter from Ronald Reagan, thanking him for his gift of a painting representing the American president and his wife Nancy. A couple of years later he was the lucky recipient of another personal letter, this time from Frank Sinatra.

In 1986, "La Fondation des Clefs de Saint-Pierre" in Geneva (the Cathedral Trust) asked Nino to design a medal to raise funds for the building restoration. In 1988, the artist was listed in the book "Ceux qui font Genève" (those who make Geneva), and in the following few years he managed to secure the signatures of 3 winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics on a symbolic painting representing the physicists and Geneva.

His art continued to attract the attention of the experts and of the media. Exhibitions and awards followed but Nino continued to work in his barber shop, which acted as a brilliant stage for his art; his paintings adorned the walls and his many wooden sculptures sat proudly on the shelves.

An admirer of Joseph William Turner and Henry Moore, Nino is now fully retired as a barber and lives with his wife Luigina in Belluno where he continues his art.

This private collection of paintings will be the first to be exhibited in the new gallery space at the Brew House. This smaller exhibition space provides an opportunity for groups and individual local artists to showcase their works and stage practical workshops.

Guildford House Gallery is open Tuesdays - Saturdays, 10am - 4.45pm. Free admission.