From March 8 to 29, 2026, Villa Cattolica, home of the Guttuso Museum in Bagheria, will host the solo art exhibition “Allegories” by artist Nino Rizzo. The exhibition, sponsored by the Municipality of Bagheria and promoted by the cultural association “Giuseppe Bagheria,” offers a visual journey, a dreamy and poignant exploration of a Bagheria suspended between reality and imagination, a visionary and ironic journey through Bagheria’s timeless atmosphere.
The inauguration, scheduled for Sunday, March 8, 2026, at 6:00 PM, will be attended by the Mayor of Bagheria Filippo Maria Tripoli, Councilors for Culture Daniele Vella, and for Entertainment Antonella Insinga. Critical and artistic contributions will be provided by writer and professor Maurizio Padovano, art historian Lisa Sciortino, and poet Vincenzo Aiello. Street Food Chef Vinicio Lo Scaccio will provide a touch of originality. The atmosphere will be enhanced by a musical interlude by Alba Cavallaro and Francesco Maria Martorana. Admission to the exhibition is free. A complete catalog of the works on display will be available on site.
Nino Rizzo boasts a long and multifaceted artistic career, characterized by constant technical and thematic experimentation. His exhibitions began in 1980 in his hometown of Bagheria, at the “La Cornice” gallery, marking the beginning of an unbreakable bond with the Sicilian region. Over the decades, his research has pushed the boundaries of traditional painting, exploring innovative techniques such as pyrography, pictorial sculpture, and engraving. His exhibitions have reached cities such as Palermo, Genoa, Venice, L’Aquila, and Pordenone. Highlights of his career include the 1993 “Ziggurat” series, the 1995 “Profil’art” social commentary project (art against AIDS), and the 2003 exhibition dedicated to Islam, presented in Tunis and subsequently in Bagheria, at Palazzo Cutò, a fruit of his experience as a traveler on five continents. International exhibitions include the presentation of his “Cahiers de Voyage” at the temporary exhibition halls of the Louvre in Paris. After a period of reflection culminating in 2012 with the radical performance “Ho ucciso Nino Rizzo,” the artist embarked on a new creative direction linked to interior architecture and design. This evolution gave rise to the Oasi Blu, a complex environmental “installation” created in his home-studio, which has been open to the public since 2020. Today, in 2026, Nino Rizzo presents his latest pictorial cycle: a synthesising work that shifts the focus from travel to the present. global to a more intimate and community dimension, interpreting local reality as a “miniature world”.