LONDON.-HF Contemporary Art - Helga Fox are delighted to showcase a selection of outstanding Italian artists at the VIVA ITALIA Festival as well as three other European artists whose artefacts represent Italian art and culture.

Vincenzo Balsamo, is one of the most important artists of the abstraction. He was born in Brindisi in 1935 and now lives and works in Verona. He was elected 'Artist of the Year' in 2004 and won a number of awards of distinction in his career. He exhibits in major international art fairs - the Art Expo Exhibition in New York 1-5 March 2007, Miami Art Fair and the Venice Biennale.

Balsamo's works presented here reflect the wide span of artistic techniques and subject matter from the period of 'Lyric Abstraction', where the lines of geometry and imagination live together. His choice of colours, the multi-juxtaposed plans in the compositions, and above all the melodious unison between ideas, visions and interpretation on the landscape of his paintings that differentiates him from the old Masters. As Balsamo stresses 'The sign outlines the forms, the colour connetes the emotional field and the light dematerializes the vision which appears unobjective', admits Vincenzo Balsamo. 'I synthesize and analyze my Cubist composition and frequently, I allow myself to critisize the techniques of the Masters, simply, because I intend to develop everything according to my own personal interpretation.'

The renown Italian artist Domenico Olivero, born in 1964 in Cuneo, will present several artistic versions of the Italian flag and a series of photographic works to demonstrate 'Italia moderna, oggi'. Olivero's thought provoking work is widely exhibited on the international art scene, including the Biennale of New York and Paris.

We are pleased to present a series of original photographs by Maria Mulas, including 'Andy Warhol at the Vatican', 'Il grande Coltello di Oldenburg' at the Guggenheim Museum New York, a 'Selfportrait' of Maria Mulas, 'Bruce Nauman' and others. Maria Mulas' artistic works 'combine aesthetic satisfaction with deep spiritual enrichment that often overflow into poetry. 'Maria Mulas, this ardent impulsive, energetic and brilliant artist, is constantly in search of revelatory images with the power to disrupt the apparent banality of the universe we inhabit and uncover the more intimate and secret reality of interior vision', according to Rossana Pittelli, art expert at the ICI, London.

The young Italian artist Alessandro Rinaldi, born in 1974 in Bologna, enthralls art lovers and collectors alike on account of his unusual style and techniques, of a subtle fusion of metallic and cameleon colours applied by hand and airbrush, giving the impression of a three-dimensional, visual impact. His particular form of artistic creation allows him to express basic human emotions as well as give his imagination free rein. He regularly shows his work in major exhibitions in Europe and the States.

Paul Marks has a lifetime of experience working with mosaic, and it is from Italy that the heritage of mosaic as a medium comes from. The methodologies and materials still used today were developed by the Romans. Many will have encountered the great classical mosaic from Roman, Byzantine and Renaissance period. Paul Marks only uses materials from Italy. The small coloured enamel glass tesserae known as Smalti are made for him by the Dona family. They have been making glass since 1926. Mario Dona, now head of the family, moved the studio from the Venetian island of Murano to Splimbergo in 1991. The glass they create is entirely hand made producing the finest materials available for the production of artisticmosaic. This tradition spans back nearly one thousand years to the Byzantine period. One of the finest examples of this type of mosaic can be seen in St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. Paul Marks' creations feature prominently in books, magazines and in design journals around the world. He was awarded the Crafts Council Prize for Design in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

The architect/sculptor Axel Staudinger descends maternally from an Italien family around Triest, an aspect is frequently reflected in his works of art. His brilliant bronze figures and landscape paintings often tell of mythological stories or project unusual and provokative incidents in the lives of people along the northern Adriatic coast.