TORONTO – “Toronto” an exhibition of paintings and drawings by painter Marco Sassone (www.marcosassone.com) opens with a reception Thursday, April 3 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Odon Wagner Contemporary (www.odonwagnergallery.com ) inToronto.  The internationally renowned artist, who moved to Toronto from San Francisco in 2005, depicts Toronto urban landscapes and cityscapes from high-rise vantage points and street perspectives in the series exhibiting through April 26.  
 
Special guests include Consul General of the United States Claudia Baker and Consul General of Italy Veronica Ferrucci.  The exhibit is open to the public starting April 4.  Those interested in receiving an invitation to the opening night reception may contact Rafael Wagner at Odon Wagner Contemporary at 416-962-0438.  The gallery is located at 172 Davenport Road, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 1J7 Canada.
 
Previewing the collection for the exhibition catalogue, Jonathan Goodman, art critic for Art in America, wrote, “The painter remains a visionary, describing tall buildings and merging highways as he forges a rapport with Toronto. Sassone is profoundly interested in rendering a nearly mythic ambience, whose experience borders on the sublime.”
 
In his essay, Goodman also described Sassone’s inspiration and connection to his new-found hometown of Toronto.  “Sassone remains someone deeply connected not only to the craft of painting but as well to the felt quality of experience, which is found in his landscapes as well as his empathetic portraits of people.  Sassone’s concentration on his theme is borne out by the passionate force of his compositions, which often includes the immediate surroundings of the city he lives in.  He is a painter for whom the primary impulse is intuitive, driven by his desire to identify with the people and views he paints.”
 
The urban cityscapes featured in the “Toronto” exhibit meld Sassone’s long-standing focus on landscapes and social themes.  In November 1967, soon after the flood devastated his city of Florence, Sassone traveled to the United States and settled in California. By exhibiting extensively in the U.S. and abroad he soon built an international reputation with his bold and vibrant paintings of California and urban landscapes, capturing alternate feelings of longing and belonging.
 
After his move to San Francisco in the early 80s, his interest in social themes intensified as he became acquainted with the poor and homeless living in the streets.  He painted a series of large canvasses and charcoal drawings portraying the lives of those he felt had been crushed by life’s injustices.  Many of these works were exhibited at top expositions and galleries around the world and his exhibition “Home on the Streets” opened in 1994 in San Francisco before traveling to Los Angeles and Florence.    
 
In describing his work, Sassone said, “From Italy to North America, the journey continues, a journey that speaks affectionately of Florence, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto. In each place I made a home and felt unsettled, a feeling that motivates me to paint. And it is from this state of longing and belonging in this last arrival that I created the ‘Toronto’ series.”
 
About Marco Sassone:
Marco Sassone was born in Campi Bisenzio, a Tuscan village, in 1942 and spent much of his youth and his early years as an artist in Florence. Sassone’s powerfully expressive gestural style is rooted in the tradition of the 19^th century Italian impressionists, “the Macchiaioli,” and has developed in the context of 20^th century European and American Art.  The most poignant and enduring influences can be traced back to his studies in the 1960’s with painter Silvio Loffredo who was a student of the Austrian master Oskar Kokoschka. The agitated brushstrokes and vibrant colours appealed to Sassone, offering the artist a foundation that has remained throughout his career. The first major retrospective of the artist’s work appeared at the Laguna Art Museum in 1979 in concurrence with the publication of “Sassone,” a monograph written by art historian Donelson Hoopes. In the years since, his work has been presented in numerous exhibitions, including those at National Academy of Design, New York; Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery; Bernheim-Jeune Gallery, Paris; Museo Italo-Americano, San Francisco; Cloisters of Santa Croce, Florence; Chicago International Art Exposition and Basel Art Fair, Switzerland.  Among other distinguished honours and awards, Marco Sassone was knighted into “the Order to the Merit of the Italian Republic” by President Sandro Pertini in 1982.
 
About Odon Wagner Gallery and Odon Wagner Contemporary
Established in 1969, Odon Wagner Gallery is Toronto's premier gallery for historic art, specializing in 18th and 19th Century European paintings, as well as in work by Modern Masters. The gallery, which has also shown international contemporary work for more than 20 years, opened Odon Wagner Contemporary in 2005.  Both galleries are located in Toronto’s Yorkville district.