Milo Lombardo: The artist of the blue planet

Milo Lombardo was born in the Midi (in Barletta) a city known for the memorable ‘disfida’. The land of Giuseppe De Nittis, an impressionist painter of the 1800s, moved to Milan to enrol in the Free Academy of Nude Art. After abandoning classical figurative art, Milo embraced the Chiarismo Lombardo until 1975. Since then, he has identified with individualistic modern figurative painting. He is also a sculptor and a lover of materials; his initial paintings are textured.

From two-dimensional painting, he moved on to bas-reliefs and then to full-round sculptures; three-dimensional artworks that escape the canvas, isolating themselves in space, rising from the background like soap bubbles – light, harmonious, yet characterful. A solo exhibition of his works from 1990 to 1995 gave him excellent national visibility, and the catalogue ‘Olii’ still testifies to his artistic relevance today. The artist’s showroom premiered the national catalogue ‘Sculptures in 2000’ on 18th November.

With over four hundred solo exhibitions in Italy and abroad, he has become a globally recognized artist. His first internationally significant solo exhibition dates back to February 1998, as a guest of the American Consulate General, by invitation of the US Consul General in Milan. On 6^th May 1999, he inaugurated a solo exhibition at the Excelsior Hotel Gallia in Milan. Forty works commissioned by the Consulate General of the Kingdom of Morocco fulfilled the desires of His Majesty King Hassan II and the Consul General of the Maghreb Consulate in Milan.

In the new millennium, he travelled around Italy, conquering the art cities, public and historical palaces and art galleries; from Florence, Verona, and Turin until returning to his roots in Barletta, where he exhibited eighty important artworks commissioned by the Consulate General of Portugal. The Portuguese Prime Minister and the Consul General of the Portuguese Consulate in Milan invited Milo Lombardo. His art is a tool for tourism propaganda, a profitable stimulus for the economy and cultural exchanges, and last but not least, an excellent source for collecting funds for research, such as leukaemia research sponsored by the Lombardy Region and the City of Bormio.

He receives numerous commissions from private individuals as well as various public administrations such as churches, municipalities, and museums. Among the most important monuments, we remember the statue created in 1998 for the Carabinieri in memory of Salvo d’Acquisto. In 2015, he was the protagonist of the Container Lab project for Expo Milan 2015. Without stopping, he will quickly arrive in 2022 to inaugurate the first museum stage of the Blue Planet artistic project in the exhibition halls of the Branda Castiglioni Palace Museum. The pandemic did not stop him; during the two-year hiatus, he created eighty paintings and one bronze sculpture to denounce the emergency of climate change and ocean pollution.

He has twenty sculptural monuments in Italy, many of which are displayed in a modern church entirely decorated by the master. Received in an official audience by Francis at St. Peter’s on 12th January 2022, he will deliver to His Holiness the work ‘The Embrace of Two Popes,’ which is still preserved at the Vatican Museums. In July 2022, the Official Cencio entitled ‘La Fenice’ was created to celebrate the six hundred years of the Collegiata Basilica of Castiglione Olona. The basilica was commissioned by Cardinal Branda Castiglioni, who had all the frescoes made by the ingenious Masolino da Panicale.