Rino Li Causi, New York City
Member Since October 2015
Artist Statement Rino Li Causi was born in Marsala, Sicily in 1943. In 1960 he moved to Rome and began his artistic career under the influence of friends who were already established artists. In 1962 he moved to Florence where he developed and refined his personal style with the support of renowned artist Pietro Annigoni. In 1969 he moved to New York City and began to successfully capture the essence of his emotional inspirations on canvas.
Li Causi’s paintings have been exhibited and enthusiastically received in major galleries throughout the world including one man shows in Tokyo, Florence, Rome, Nice France at the Renoir Museum, and multiple shows in New York City and the surrounding metropolitan area.
Li Causi’s paintings celebrate the wondrous beauty of nature, represented by an almost overwhelming explosion of color. It is his universal themes of romanticism, the exuberance of nature and a sense of childhood innocence that have made his work so well received.
One Italian art critic perhaps summed up many viewers’ feelings of Li Causi’s work: “I think that there is in Li Causi that which I would like to find in every painter, every musician, every person and that is to say an honest and sincere expression, an expression born within the body and which is not absolutely intellectual. It is an expression which moves and arouses the soul. It is precisely this capacity to move in a universal way through his own perception and interpretation, that completes the role of a true artist.”
Indeed Li Causi’s expressive work has been compared many times to that of the Impressionist masters Monet and Seurat. At the surface that comparison is valid, considering the similarities in the handling of the paint, and the Impressionistic eye for the play of light on landscapes and the objects within them. But when one looks beyond the “stuccatto” surface of the paintings - a surface achieved by mixing sand into the acrylic paint - the title of “Contemporary Impressionist” seems too limiting. For Li Causi’s canvases also act as windows into an age of innocence gone by. They invite you into their dream world of a turn of the century Paradise Lost. His landscapes are born from a fanciful mind. They show dense butterfly populated meadows of wildflowers, sun splashed beaches, shaded tree groves intertwined with lace-trimmed wooden fences, women strolling with parasols, and children playing in sun bonnets. All of Li Causi’s days are Sunday afternoons. While viewing one cannot help but long for the carefree happiness of our childhood innocence.
Li Causi's cityscapes redefine the way we see New York. The skyline is unmistakable, but re-envisioned with his vibrant color palette to create a new city of fantasy and timelessness. The past is ever present in his work challenging us to comprehend the complexity and accomplishment of our modern day world. It beckons us to remember our journey to the present with both pride and nostalgia.
In 2003 Li Causi began manufacturing a line of greeting cards based on his images. The line has now grown to over 234 images and is carried in many prestigious card and book stores in New York City including Rizzoli and Barnes and Noble. In recent years Li Causi has expanded his creative output by making sculptures, writing poetry and songs. To view his entire artistry please visit RinoLiCausi.com and RinoCards.com
Click to save as artist's preferred kit 
