Max Crivello

Max Crivello (born 27 February 1958) is an Italian artist, illustrator, and art cartoonist.

He was born in Palermo. After completing regular artistic studies, Crivello travelled and worked both in Italy and internationally.

His artistic activity has ranged from painting to graphic design to comics: in 1975 he began to exhibit his art and to collaborate with various editors in producing graphic art pages, book illustrations and comic strips.Beginning in 1986 he worked as an independent cartoonist and professional illustrator for the Giornale di Sicilia and since 1987 he has completed various works of public art.During his career Crivello has worked with Dino Buzzati and was associated with the painter Renato Guttuso and with the poet Giacomo Giardina.

Crivello serves as Staff Lecturer at the National Art School in Monreale. Before taking on this role in 1997, he had already founded the Scuola siciliana del fumetto (Sicilian School of Cartooning), an unstructured not-for-profit institution with no official staff. Prior to the school's closing in 2001 at Crivello's behest, it offered free mini-courses, exhibitions and seminars on Sequential and Visual Art, aimed at preventing teenage drop-out and disengagement while encouraging young people to continue their studies in school.

After some years Crivello turned to painting, producing cycles of works dedicated to imaginary characters of the world of fables and stories.

In 2004, with the four-panel story Crash Day, a free interpretation of the tragic September 11th attack in New York, Crivello's students Riccardo Ferrigno and Luciano Spaccapietra won the Comic Stories (Fumetto Stories) prize of the Dervio International Cartoons and Comics Festival in the secondary school division.

Crivello organized exhibitions and demonstrations (connected to educational activities) with the sponsorship of the city of Palermo and the Sicilian Regional Labor Council and Tourism Council, of which the most noteworthy were the International Exhibition on Pinocchio, and the pre-release exhibition show against the Mafia, Mafia: Architecture of a Pain, dedicated to the memory of the judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. The struggle against the Mafia is a subject of great concern to Crivello.

Also noteworthy is the publication of the mini-series The Excellent Ones, comic strips dedicated to victims of the Mafia, illustrated by Crivello's students and sponsored by the Regional Province of Palermo in 2000.

Crivello's current projects include one on mobbing: THE MOB. This project foresees an exhibition of illustrations and the publication of a minibook with the history of mobbing, as well as its causes and effects, with texts by various authors collected in Palermo in February 2007.

Portfolios of prints

• 1979 – Cola Pesce – serie Miti e leggende di Sicilia (5 etchings with aquatint, with text by Giovanni Capuzzo).
• 1982 – La Baronessa Di Carini (4 etchings).
• 1983 – Promontori per un Natale (lithographs, with text by Aldo Gerbino).
• 1984 – Donna e peccato (lithographs with text by Francesco Carbone and poems by Giacomo Giardina).
• 1985 – Don Michelino (7 serigraphs in color, with text by Francesco Carbone).
• 1986 – Harem (serigraphs in color, with text by Bent Parodi)
• 1988 – Gli amori impossibili (engravings, with text by Renzo Bertoni).
• 1989 – Apokalipsys (5 engravings, with text by Francesco Carbone).
• 1990 – Miti e leggende di Sicilia (5 engravings, with text by Renzo Bertoni)
• 1992 – Venere e Naxo (3 engravings, with text by Francesco Carbone).
• 1993 – Il corpo e la mente (4 engravings, with text by Bent Parodi).
• 1994 – Palermo. Storia e miti (2 lithographs, with text by Bent Parodi and Salvo Licata).
• 1995 – I Beati Paoli (10 lithographs, with text by Salvo Di Matteo).
• 1996 – Santa Rosalia (25 engravings).
• 1997 – Volti di donne (10 engravings, with text by Alberoni).
• 1999 – Computer Art (10 lithographs).
• 2000 – Skethc and model (18 lithographs in color, with text by Dario Gulli and Alberto Arato).
• 2005 – Crocifissione (photocopies),
• 2006 – E sul quotidiano rivivono i luoghi dell' immaginario (with text by Francesco Deliziosi, 1989)

Editorial creations and comic books

• Fear(libro di racconti dell'orrore, with text by Dario Gulli)
• He-egli Virgilius Dc 2999 (miniserie di fantapolitica a fumetti)
• Virgilius 2999 (miniserie a fumetti, con 80 tavole a colori)
• 1000 Illustrazioni per il Giornale di Sicilia– Palermo
• La saga dei Beati Paoli (200 tavole a fumetti)
• Coriolano della foresta (200 tavole a fumetti)
• Illustrations for I cognomi, by Bent Parodi (25 illustrations)
• Illustrations for Don Michelino (50 illustrations)
• L'indifferenza uccide (Speciale "Max Living", 36 tavole a fumetti)
• Uccidere Gesu (50 tavole a fumetti)
• Favorita di Donizetti (38 tavole a fumetti)
• La vita che non-c'è (Lexy Dark horse Presente n.7 del novembre 2000, 8 tavole a fumetti)
• Uccidere Gesu seconda versione (64 tavole a fumetti, Lexy – Dark Horse edizioni 2000)
• Horror Show Pin-up (Lexy – Chaos on the edge aprile 2002)

Exhibitions

The most important since 1975 are:

• 1983, "Tra immaginario e territorio" (Galleria Comunale, con il patrocinio della Provincia di Palermo)
• 1984, "Tre pannelli per un trittico" (Comune di Misilmeri)
• 1985, "Apokaliypsis cum figuris" (Galleria comunale Randazzo di Catania)
• 1986, "A 10 anni di attività. Ricordi" (Biblioteca comunale di Palermo)
• 1989, "Incisciature" (incisioni, Galleria comunale di Catania)
• 1990, "Amori Amore" (incisioni, Galleria comunale di Messina)
• 1990, "'Luci" (acquatinte colorate, Biblioteca comunale di Erice)
• 1991, "Mafia. Architettura di un dolore" (Galleria comunale "La Carnale" di Salerno)
• 1991, "the Gospel of Giovanni" ( New Orleans Gallery)
• 1992, "Ritratto del dolore" (Galleria pubblica comunale di San Giovanni Rotondo)
• 1995, "Implacabili segni" (Palazzo Comitini, con il patrocinio della Provincia di Palermo)
• 1998, "Illustrazioni e comics" (Palazzo Delle Acquile, Comune di Palermo)
• 1999, " In Giro Per La Algovia " – Antologica Patrocinio Citta di Kempten, Monaco)
• 2003, "Il signore degli anelli i mondi di Tolkien" (tavole tratte dai racconti di Tolkien, richieste da Centro Studi Antonello da Messina – Palazzo delle Aquile, Comune di Palermo).
• 2004, "Art and Work" Antologica,(Palazzo Cutò, Biblioteca comunale di Bagheria)
• 2006, "Pinocchio" (Galleria Mammana di Palermo, con il patrocinio dell'Assessorato al Turismo della Regione Siciliana)
• 2006, "Pinocchio: burattino del passato o parabola moderna?" (Fondazione Terragni, Chiostrina di S. Eufemia, con il patrocinio dell'Assessorato al Turismo della Regione Siciliana e del Comune di Como)

Public art

• 1997, "Paesaggio e territorio", pannello in ceramica policroma (10 x 5m), parco urbano del comune di Lascari