Armando Arpaja

Born in Rome, he has been able to scrutinize his city since he was a child, continuing through time studying its tiniest details which led to the painting of some of its lesser known corners.

He attended the School of Oriental Art of the Municipality of Rome and then transferred for a certain period of time to Athens to assist as an apprentice to Jannis Tsaroukis whom he considers his master.

Armando Arpaja could be defined as a  travelling artist, who never betrayed his roots or his origins but has travelled the world collecting shades and emotions from places which have hosted him, and committed these to canvas. Since the planet earth can convey a feeling, an invitation, without demanding something in return, without rejecting and above all without excluding, anyone. Art knows no borders,  neither does it allow for suggestions or conditions of religious or political integration.

In December 1982, and in January 1998 he was chosen to receive the “Premio Campodoglio” as the European personage for the art of painting.

Singled out by Giovanni Carandente, he has been inserted into the Critics’ Section of the Catalogue of Modern Italian Art (Mondatori / Bollafi).
The following have written about the works of Armando Arpaja, among others: Ugo Moretti, Alberto Bevilacqua, Enzo Siciliano, Nazareno Fabretti, Dario Bellezza,  Arnaldo Romani Brizzi, Francois Le Targat, Massimo Lacchei Calpini, Mustapha Bouamama, Fedone Hajiantoniou.
In 1991 and 1994, Armando Arpaja was invited to exhibit in Egypt: at the Italian Institute of Culture in Cairo and in Alessandria. In addition, he held various lessons for last year students at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Helwan in Zamalek (Cairo) .
In Jordan in October of 1994 he did an exhibition at the Royal Cultural Center in Amman.
He was invited in 1995 by Mons. Maroun Lahhan, the Rector of the Latin Patriarchal Seminary of Beit Jala (Bethlehem); he did a series of paintings inspired by the life of San Franceso Severio for the chapel dedicated to him. The realization of his painting of the Crucifiction dates from the same period and has been donated to Santuario del Divino Amore in Rome.  

With the patronage of the Italian Consulate and the Dante Alighieri Cultural Center, he inaugurated on June 2, 1997 a personal exhibition on  ”The Cultural Complex of Sidi Belyout” in Casablanca, Morocco.

In November of the same year, he did an exhibition at the “Galerie Cerf’Art” in Paris and in July 1998 at “Le Club des Arts” at the Palace of the European Consul at Strasbourg.

In April of 1999, the Italian Embassy of Algeria reopened the activity of the Cultural Institute with one of his “personals” and in collaboration with the Algerian Government, he was retained to prepare, together with Algerian artists,  ateliers for the practice and the teaching of various ornamental techniques.

His most recent “personals” made the rounds in November 1999 at the University of Ankara and in September 2000 at the Italian Institute of Culture in Cairo.

On the occasion of the Year 2000 Jubilee, he contributed materials and advice for a Guide of the Judaic-Palestinian Rome; he presented the  project for exhibition at the Jubilee/Holy Year through history, literature and art to the Artistic Cultural Commission for the Grand Jubilee of the Year 2000 and received approval.

In the month of September 2001, the Cultural Attaché for Portugal and the Italian Embassy presented a retrospective of his works (1976 – 2001) at the Municipal Library of Bethlehem in Lisbon.

The Italian Embassy and the Italian Cultural Center, in collaboration with the Riadh Office El-Feth, presented in Algeria at the Galerie ESMA an exhibition of his entitled “Coexistence: “Algiers and its Casbah” and in May, inaugurated by the Prewsident of the Republic of Cyprus, the Municipality of Lefkara presented one of his personals in the local Museum of  Popular Art.

In addition, he participated in the Artistic Commission of Evaluation for projects presented by students involved with the exhibition “Italian Schools with Unesco and the New Millenium” at the Ministry’s Center for Cultural Properties in Rome.

Singled out by the European Center for Tourism and Performance, in collaboration with the Attaché for Political Culture of the Municipality of Rome, Armando Arpaja received in Campidoglio on December 11, 2001, the prize for the International Artist with this motivation: “Exaltation of various ethnicities granting  privilege to culture in the function of the construction of peace, equality and fraternity among peoples”.

In August 2003, he was invited by the Association of Plastic Arts (UNAC) to exhibit his works at the first Mediterranean Salon of Plastic Arts MEDI-ART 2003 at Oran, Algeria.