Where are you from and
what brought you to
Singapore?
I’m originally from Italy, near
Florence. My first visit to
Singapore was actually in 1997
and it was love at first sight.
Little did I know that, four years
down the track, I would marry
a Singaporean girl while staging
my first exhibition in Melbourne,
Australia. We subsequently got
married and lived in Italy.
In 2006, as fate would have it, a
Singapore gallery owner came to
Italy and chose my works to open
their new gallery in Takashimaya.
The rest, as they say, is history.
I’m grateful to have since found
great demand for my work in
Singapore, and in the region.Righetti Arte owner and artist MICHELE
RIGHETTI talks about his work and infl uences.What can people expect
from a visit to Righetti Arte?
Visitors will see a new collection
of my pop art, as well as a
collection of outstanding work by
selected young Chinese emerging
artists, including sculptures and
paintings. They will also be able
to see several genres of my work
from over the past 15 years.Tell us more about your
pop art.
In the last few years, I have
travelled extensively in
California, New York, Miami
and many parts of Asia, and this
latest collection is an expression
of my visual travel journal.
I have melded modern and
latter-day icons, different culturalRENAISSANCE MAN
nuances, urban life and personal
experiences into visual striking
and detailed narrative paintings,
which I call “Nouveau Pop Art”.
There are also a number of my
favourite childhood characters
from the 1970s and 1980s, such
as Popeye and Super Mario, and
memories of Japanese cartoons
of the 1980s that form the story
of each of my paintings.Were you always going to
be an artist?
I was from a family of master
bakers and, as the eldest son,
it was suggested that I study
accountancy and business to take
over the family business. However,
my interest in high fashion and
costume design for theatre ledDESIGN YOUR SPACE104 CITY GUIDE 2018