(LAFAYETTE, NJ) — The Skylands Museum of Art presents a new fine art exhibition offering a Spotlight on the Artist: Massimo Rao, the Italian artist known for his classic yet somewhat mysterious painting style, opened Memorial Day weekend and will be on view through October 2025. The exhibition is on display in the museum’s Sanctuary Gallery and highlights eight Rao works from the permanent collection, including oil and tempera paintings, lithographs and drawings, each of which serve to call attention to his unique creative perspective. Entrance to the Spotlight on the Artist is included with museum admission, a suggested donation of $10 per person.
Rao’s paintings, lithographs and drawings combined his own original and contemporary vision with influences from classic and Renaissance styles. He was inspired further by Nordic Mannerism and pre-Raphaelite approaches.
Recurring themes are seen in his paintings, including a woman, transformed into a Greek goddess and a man, dressed as an angel – sometimes hiding behind a moon. Rao was called “the Painter of the Moon” because he so frequently used the image of the Moon with his subjects, which include men, women, and asexual characters set in a surreal, dream-like dimension. Settings such as these were said to be the reflection of the inner tension of the artist, as well as the anxiety and the timeless solitude of man. There is often a sense of mystery to his compositions.
Rao was known for using ancient techniques for preparing and applying colors on canvas. Combining the use of tempera and oil paints in a single work, as he did in “Portrait” and “Shelter Made of Ashes & Recollections,” both on display here, was not a common method for his time.
Massimo Rao was born in the town of San Salvatore Telesino, not far from Naples, Italy in 1950. He studied art history in Benevento and architecture at the University of Naples. He had exhibitions in Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, The Netherlands and the United States before he died in 1996 at the age of 46. His home town of San Salvatore Telesino in Italy opened a museum dedicated to the artist with 65 works by the artist in 2012.
Please support the advertisers at New Jersey Stage!
Want info on how to advertise? Click here
Closer to home, the Skylands Museum of Art is pleased to exhibit eight works from their permanent collection here in New Jersey.
On display in the Sanctuary Gallery are the following works by Massimo Rao.
* “The Day Became a Flame in her Eye”
* “Ne in Celo, ne in Terra” (“Neither in the Sky, Nor on Earth”)
* “Viandanti su on Mare di Nebbia” (“Travelers on a Sea of Fog”)
* “Prisioner of Love”
* “Shelter Made of Ashes and Recollections”
* “Portrait”
* “Sphinx” includes a dedication to Skylands Museum co-Founder, Neil Zukerman of CFM Gallery, NYC.
* “Angel”
The Skylands Museum of Art opened in October 2023 and has been gaining recognition as an important venue for American and international 20th and 21st century art focusing on realism and modern surrealism. Complete with a sculpture garden, the museum is a delightful sanctuary where art, nature, mythology and humanity harmonize. The museum is open to the public each Friday and Saturday from 12:00pm – 4:00pm and is located at 15 Route 15 in Lafayette, New Jersey. A $10 per person donation to support the museum is suggested.
The Skylands Museum of Art is home to a permanent collection of over 300 works of sculpture, paintings, illustrations and more. The collection depicts characters both real and imagined from fairy tales, literature, myth and from the artists’ deep personal connections with the world around them. The gallery rooms are filled with thoughtfully curated examples of approachable surreal and realistic works exploring Fairy Tales, Dragons, Sacred Spaces, the Human Psyche, Faces and Flowers, Baba Yaga (a Ukrainian fairy tale), Eastern vs. Western Animals and Mythology. The museum’s three floors are home to works by noted artists including Anne Bachelier, Brian Branch, Salvador Dali, Ailene Fields, Brian Froud, Leonor Fini, Pablo Picasso, Massimo Rao and many more.
The Skylands Museum of Art is a 501(c)(3) organization and member of ArtPride New Jersey, New Jersey Association of Museums, Institute of Museum and Library Services, Sussex County Arts & Heritage Council and the Sussex County Chamber of Commerce. The museum is supported in part through the generosity members and visitors whose donations have contributed to expanded hours and programming. Skylands Museum is a first-time grant recipient, meriting funding made available in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, through the State/County Partnership Block Grant Program, as administered by Sussex County Arts and Heritage Council.
Ocean County Library Toms River Branch presents “Who We Really Are” Art Exhibit
Curate NJ Gallery presents “Say Less” Group Show
