Ilaria Goffredo

I had known Davide Cristofaro “by sight” for years, practically, since we lived on the same street.

It was, however, at the exhibition of the 2012 Festival Internazionale delle Emozioni, organised by the cultural association Artemozioni, that I saw a painting that struck me deeply. You know that feeling, when you look at a work of art and it seems to have been created just for you, to say something to your very soul? Well, that is exactly what the painting in front of me did. I read the artist’s name, but at first I thought I did not know him. Then, however, I discovered that it was none other than the simple, kind young man I had passed so many times in the street. The work in question was this one:

Laure. Ogni giorno felicità

But the art of Davide Cristofaro does not stop at painting, which itself ranges between the sacred and the profane: he handles with innate skill every creation that involves colour, whether painting or the creation and colouring of clothes and fabrics.

As his biography puts it: “Colour possesses me; I have no need to try to grasp it. It possesses me for ever, I feel it… Colour and I are one…”

Personally, I have always felt drawn to every kind of art form; I am fascinated by it. I believe that every artist has within a particular sensibility, a “different” way of seeing things, a perspective on everyday reality that lets him grasp the meaning beyond appearances, bringing to the fore what would otherwise have remained in a corner, mute and quiet, but which can in truth move us deeply. This is what Davide Cristofaro does: his artistic personality, rightly described as “versatile”, draws out of the ordinary what is incredible, and then gives it to humanity through original, colourful creations that are certain to remain in the memory. A sort of “mission”, then, his, one in which the observer takes part in the foreground. Even the most serious and rational spirits will feel an emotion as they approach the works of Davide Cristofaro. A talent so pure and real, strong and throbbing, rare in these times and so precious. A versatile artist indeed, who has so much to give, so much to show, so much to offer the world.