Luigi Fumagalli, Artist

Luigi Fumagalli is an internationally renown artist whose works are displayed in the U.S. Senate Hart building in Washington, D.C., the NATO building in New York, the Italian Cultural Institute in San Francisco, and are in private collections throughout the world. The Hawaii State Enterprises has commissioned Fumagalli to create murals for their buildings, their ultra-luxury condominiums, One Waterfront Towers, and Restaurant Row in Honolulu. His enormous abstract works can be seen at the Hilton Hawaiian Villages, as well as Waialae Country Club, Host International, Cinerama Reef Hotel, and Hawaiian Regent Hotel among numerous buildings and offices.

Born in Monza, near Milan in Italy, Fumagalli studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Monza and developed his enormous and restless talent through six years of travel, painting, and exhibiting in the Orient with his first major show sponsored by the airline Alitalia. At each stage of his odyssey he experimented with color and line, interpreting the peoples and culture of one place through the perspectives of other lands. His first eastern subjects, Hong Kong’s Hakka peasants, were angular mosaics of color that reflected and refracted light like the stained glass of windows of Italy’s churches. Today, influenced by the light and color of the East, his western subjects – abstract chess variations, knights, marionettes and horses – are full of motion and excitement graphically stronger and bolder in color than similar themes by Picasso. His Oriental subjects, the colorful Kabuki and gentle geishas of Japan, are rendered with passionate, Latin sensuousness. His abstracts evoke tremendous vitality conveyed by the colors, compositions, and movement that betray his Latin temperament.

Luigi Fumagalli and wife, Maggie (adorned with leis) with Laser Eye Center of Hawaii affiliated doctors.

Fumagalli has lived in Honolulu since 1969, delighting in the clarity of Hawaii’s light, the variety of her colors, the ethnic mix of her peoples. His style has matured into a strong, expressionistic balance of realism and abstraction, a subtle interweaving of form and line for graphic emphasis and bold manipulations of color to create and intensify mood.

His paintings have received some unexpected publicity, turning up in scenes from the movies “Scent of a Woman,” “Aspen Extreme,” and “Out of Justice,” as well as in the Hawaii-based TV series “Raven.” Celebrities like Roger Moore, Neal Sedaka, Robert Goulet, Jim Nabors, Calvin Hill, John Hillerman, and many others have been privy to the evolution of Luigi’s subjects and styles over the years. Local charities have utilized his talents for auctions and fundraising events, and the Hawaii Heart Association has named him “Artist of the Year” in 1994.

"Colorful, bold, energetic, emotional" - these were the words used to describe Luigi Fumagalli's works of art as they were showcased at the Laser Eye Center of Hawaii's Art of Vision Gallery. Inspired by the stained-glass windows in Italy, Luigi's vibrant acrylic paintings impressed and awed many of our patients. He has become a celebrity himself with works of art turning up in movies as well as various office buildings in Hawaii and on the mainland. We were honored to exhibit his show entitled, "Equestre."

www.fumagalliart.com