SCULPTURES
"The human body, and more specifically the female body, is my primary field of exploration in my work. Within this body is embodied the weight of my reflections and emotions, which manifest as conflicts and misunderstandings, resulting in the palpable tension so present in my sculptures. Born at the foot of Mount Etna in Sicily, the expression of Mother Earth Gaia's vital force permeates my work : incising the material, creating reliefs, crevices, roughness, and abrupt cuts… The evocation of Greco-Roman antiquity and mythology is a recurring theme in my sculptural work. In these eternal and mythical figures, I find the very essence of power, of physical and earthly strength.
The technique of bronze or welded steel is one of the languages that allows me to materialize the formal and artistic quest, as well as the emotions, that I have sought to express through other techniques. I always begin my sculptures with the feet—which are of great importance—then I "build up" by establishing the lines and profiles of the piece, and I "clothe" this structure by welding pieces of bronze or steel that I cut, hammer, and bend. Once these pieces are assembled, I roughen them with a grinding wheel to give them relief and make the material vibrate. Thus worked and transformed, the material brings strength and emotional charge to the work. The natural oxidation of the metal, or a bold, graphic paint job, then clothes the sculpture like a second skin. The chaotic and abstract tangle of metal pieces, as well as the contrasting fulls and voids, are all elements that invite the eye and mind to journey through the construction of the work and to give it form through a constant back-and-forth between the form and the subject represented.”
ANGELS
Angels first appeared in Alessandro Montalbano's works in 1996, with Icarus, as a mystic response to the loss of a loved one in that year. His angels, naturally, bear witness to presence that is both sacred and divine, but his message often goes further than that. The angel also testifies to that spiritual need by which every individual is persecuted at some point in his existence. If the wings are shown disjointed and torn into strips, it is because the angel has touched man at his most profound, and that this very contact has scarred him and made him more human, while all the time guarding hope in his mission. Usually portrayed as asexual, Montalbano's angels are feminine, for not only are they celestial beings, but they also present the positive image of woman ; the hope they bring for man.
From an aesthetic angle, this subject allows Montalbano scope not only to take into account the very matter of the human body, but also the immaterial that the idea of an angel implies. This is seen, for example, in the dynamic torsions in the body, being pulled ever higher, yet at the same time solidly attached to the ground by its feet ; feet to which the artist attaches much importance. Whether in painting or in sculpture, the bodies of his angels are the materialisation of all the research carried out on strokes, as well as the void, fullness and rhythm.
"I have been working on the theme of the angel for over 20 years. Through this subject, I seek to express the duality of humankind, both grounded in the earth, in material reality, but also drawn towards an ideal, a transcendence, a spirituality that I represent with wings in which a wind of hope blows, even though they are in tatters. The notion of duality is also present in my work with bronze or steel, between power and fragility. My sculptures are both benevolent and tragic. It is up to each viewer to see, according to their own experiences and state of mind, which feelings my angels will guide them towards…"
PAINTED BRONZE AND STEEL
"With my painted bronzes, I try through an almost tribal painting, to explode the voids and filled spaces in an agitated whirlwind well proportionned and guided by a deliberate rhythm, essential in my work. Through those painted sculptures, I want to question these famous voids and filled spaces to give them an another reading to push even farther the perception of my sculpture. The pictorial writing realized on the sculptures (lines, points, circles...) is very similar to those which caracterizes my painings, and is not consequently a trivial paint which would be just here to embellish the work. This painting brings an other way of understanding the sculpture, of discovering the voids an dfilled spaces which constitute the main part of my resarch as sculptor."
HORSES
The horse's body in Montalbano's work is marked both by great tension and torsion. It is an energetic body, not simply posing on its four hooves, but in positions sometimes quite impossible for the animal to achieve. It is a horse which suffers, and to which the artist attributes human feelings. The image of the horse, the powerful symbol which it evokes in our minds, is all the more reinforced by the artist's endowing it with huge visual dynamics. The tension which he brings out in the horse's body, in the evocation of the struggle against death, we see the incredible strength and capacity which man in fact possesses in triumphing over the trials and suffering he undergoes.
BULLS
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"The theme of the bull, which recently appeared in my work following my move to the Charolais countryside, is in the same vein as that of the horse. The exceptional physicality of this new “neighbor,” with whom I have established a dialogue, captivates and impresses me with both its power and its harmony.
The astrological age of Taurus has influenced the arts from the end of prehistory to antiquity, embodying divine power on earth in the eyes of many civilizations. The symbolic evocation of these creatures, the bull and the horse, has fascinated people since time immemorial, and in my work, they are a metaphor for humankind, its strength, and its capacity to face life's challenges. The bull embodies the fundamental link that connects us to the earth and its vital energy."
MONUMENTALS SCULPTURES
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SCULPTURES 1988 - 1994
At the end of the eighties I started my real experience of sculptor after re-examining the materials and techniques used at school such as clay, plaster and marble. At this moment of my artistic process I had the interest for voids and filled spaces and the materials that I used (clay, plaster, marble) did not suit my research anymore. So, I started to assemble pieces of plaster, metal and wood. In 1994, one of my sculptures of material assembly was awarded the Princess Grace Foundation’s Prize in Monaco, where I took part at the invitation of the famous french sculptor César who appreciated my work.