When it comes to art, painter Dario Campanile is a daring romantic who rejects the status quo.
The Italian artist, who lives in Naples part-time with his wife, Patricia, likes to call himself a gypsy. He isn’t tied to a specific studio. He has multiple gallery affiliations. And when he’s not in Florida, he likes to travel, from Hawaii to Europe and back again. This nomadic spirit also applies to his painting.
Campanile discovered realism when he became ill as a teenager and was confined to bed for months. To pass the time, his father presented him with a set of oil paints as a gift. Realism became a way for Campanile to get out of his head and focus on painstaking details for hours on end. “Once I started painting, I never stopped,” he says. “It’s been 68 years.”
Those six-plus decades are the kind most creatives only dream about. During that time, the self-taught Campanile has had one-man shows from Rome to Los Angeles, worked on album covers for everyone from Herbie Hancock to the Little River Band, opened and closed a gallery, and met masters like Giorgio de Chirico and Salvador Dalí along the way.
About two decades ago, after dabbling in surrealism, impressionism, and even experimenting with cast paper and bronze sculpting, Campanile discovered abstract expressionism, a style that’s as far removed from his roots as it could be. “It’s the most direct and pure expression from my soul,” he says. “It’s extremely challenging because it doesn’t look good at the beginning. Realism is very planned, very technical, and often requires an academic approach. With realism you can control as much as you want, but in the [abstract realm], it’s all about pure expression.”
By all accounts, the shift has been a positive one. Campanile is more productive, finishing paintings in as little as two or three days as opposed to three or four months, and his Naples gallerist, Marlissa Gardner of Emillions Art, where his art is exhibited and sold, feels the change has energized him. “Dario’s works have not only stayed relevant; they have grown in power, proving ultimately to have long-lasting and increasing value,” she says. “It’s very rare for an artist to grow [like he has], and speak to all ages and cultures.”
As Campanile sees it, it’s all part of his ongoing trajectory. “I paint because the rewards are amazing,” he says. “When I’m in the process of painting, I go to another level of consciousness. It’s a mystical, amazing thing, a creative force that guides me.”
Story Credits:
Text by Kelley Marcellus
Additional reporting by Jane Enos
Photos courtesy of Dario Campanile
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