Tiger in the dark

Ivan Pili, concert musician, composer and visual artist, born in Cagliari in 1976, graduated in civil engineering. From an early age showed his artistic skills in design, distinguishing himself first in kindergarten and then in elementary school. He discovered his innate propensity for music entirely by accident when playing the family of aerophones bellows and made his first concert debut at the age of twelve. In the years 1991 to 1994 he devoted himself to the study of musical genres popular in Europe and at the age of sixteen he begins to earn the title of International artist with his first concerts around Europe. Particularly important for his artistic development was the meeting with the Romanian musician Gheorghe Zamfir and German Helmut Zacharias considered among the most virtuous violin teachers in decades. In the years 1994 to 2000 joined several theatre groups and European musicians with whom he composed the music for Jose Alfonso’s “Era um Redondo vocabulo”, “Le voyageur sans bagages”by Francis Poulenc and “Lauda somnului” by Lucian Blaga In 1994 he won the diatonic accordion world title with the top score 100/100. In the last deacde he took part in several performances as concert soloist in prestigious theatres such as Madrid Pradillo,the Museo Nacional de Dona Maria Lisbon, the Theatre du Balcon Avignon, the Amphitheatre in Arles, the Radio City Music Hall in New York and Cuvillies Theatre of Monaco of Bavaria. Some of the awards he earned in his short carreer include Bester Musikier-Stuttgart Award, the Gold Award Helsingin Soittimien and Targu Secuiescmuzica premiu. Author of the album “Novas Nodas” that is the traditional Sardinian music revisited in contemporary key (Egea Distribution). He’s also the creator and director of the International Music Project Keltaloth, with albums presented in 2015. At the end of 2014 he resumed entirely by accident his artistic pictorial path interrupted with the advent of his musical carreer working during the construction of a wall painting in Germany, a fact derived ,in fact just from a concert. From this moment he became known and received several official requests for the production of other murals. The spread of images through social media brought the first requests for participation in collective exhibitions. The first presentation of his art in a group exhibition was on February 6 th 2015. The first period was characterized by supports of small-medium size and the use of acrylic colours but Ivan Pili stepped forward and after a few jobs he totally dedicated himself to the use of oil paints. His first subjects referred to the figurative, evoking their life scenes and aiming to a “commom” public , just like on the occasion of his concerts. Despite some attempts to paint landscape and still life, the true vocation of Ivan Pili will be the figurative. Overwelmed by an emotional wake, although his works require long preparations typical of the Realism his production was already ready for his first solo exhibition at Saint Augustine Palace in Salerno. From here on it is the beginning of a new experimental phase always growing, both in ability and in size of media refining in no time all techniques that will lead to the beginning of 2016 to perfect hyperrealism, “not photo”, but going beyond “the photograph”. Those subjects still remain in the figurative are very different and the different light situations which Pili alters to his liking and with disarming ease with minimalist scenic essence and expressiveness. The numerous requests for participation in events and the ever-growing works commissioned will lead Ivan Pili to reverse his artistic skills leaving the music to devote himself to full time painting.