Pleasure and discovery. He was born in Palermo in 1940. He studied paintings by Pippo Rizzo and Leo Castro. A student from Catania’s Leo Santos and – for the design – and for engraving by Nunzio Sciavarello. In the 60s in Rome, he studied painting with Luigi Montamarini and Alessandro Trotti and set design with Peppino Piccolo. From 1970 to 1974 in Paris, he studied drawing with the sculptor Bernard Citroen and attended Orfeo Tamburi’s studio. Lives and works in Italy, in the Umbrian countryside near Todi.
Crisostomo was lucky enough to get to know the artistic world of the 1960s when names now famous all over the world and present in the most important art collections were still alive in Italy and Europe. His artistic skills have only one enemy, his shy character and little interest in introducing himself to the general public, but his paintings are a completely different story.
The wise use of color and shapes gives it an absolutely original and easily identifiable personality. Human forms, animals, or objects, are born in his paintings, sometimes with abstract lines, others with well-defined figures, but always in a single context. Contemporary art, rich in color, has no secrets for him, and knows how to use all its aspects.
Seeing a nude, a historical figure or an animal through the forms of Giovanni Crisostomo is a pleasure and a discovery. The multifaceted artist manages to produce collages and paintings continuously and without losing genuineness and originality.
