FIGÈ - Angie Elizabeth Brooksby was born in USA in 1965. She moved to Florence in 1986 after completing a BFA in sculpture from the
Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. She studied with figurative sculptor John Shan, the son of realist painter Ben Shan; Fulbright scholar Gene Baldini and
Margaret Dowell, Ph. D. In Florence she studied sculpture at the Academia delle Belle Arti then began painting professionally.
The 21 years she spent in Florence she painted still lifes of Italian cuisine; wine, olive oil and cheese in long canvases, and she painted landscapes of Tuscany travelling often on a vespa with a her easel tied to the back to paint smaller studies then reelaborating larger works in the atelier. She loves to paint from life and considers these to be « zen » paintings, usually of smaller format.
Her italian cuisine paintings have been described as an unusual approach to pop art. She likes to think of them as reminiscent of early Greek-Roman painting in particular xenia. Vetruvius said that xenia paintings were installed into the walls of ancient Roman villas as a welcoming to ones guests.
She is a colorist that uses unusal combinations of the finest quality pigments. The colors in her Tuscan landscapes are vibrant and give the viewer a sensation of having been there, you can almost smell the vineyards, olive groves and ocre color earth.
Actually FIGÈ is working on a series of French pastries, totally fascinated by these mini edible sculptures. She has recently returned to painting the human figure and continues to paint the Tuscan landscape.
The psydoname FIGÈ comes from a satire of the Italian classic novel I Promessi Sposi by Manzoni where three Italian comedians meet the bella figuera , FIGÈ.
In January 2007 FIGÈ.moved to Paris after 21 years of living in Florence and Tuscany because she fell in love with a french scientist she dated in her home town in the US 20 years ealier. She has an Atelier in Ivry-sur-Seine in an old factory with about 50 other artists from all over the world but travels monthly to Tuscany.
She has exhibited her paintings in Italy, Germany, France, USA, and Japan. Her paintings are in corporate and private collections wordwide.
