Angelo Vadala was born in Messina, Sicily in 1940. He started painting when he was only 12 and at the age of 18, Vadala left Sicily to live and study in Florence to study architecture. But after two years of study at the Florence University of Architecture, Vadala found he was distracted by what the many museums of that beautiful city.

Vadala strongest need was to capture the human form, in all its beauty and majesty, and become a part of the long legacy of Italian artists that came before him. The city of Florence itself became his inspiration; Leonardo DaVinci, Velazquez and Caravaggio, his teachers. From his study of architecture, Vadala had received a foundation in the art and technique of draftsmanship.

Throughout the 1960's, Vadala studied art on his own. At the end of the 60's, he went to New York where he was influenced by the new realism movement and the new American figurative painting style. Over the next decade and a half, he developed his personal style, based on technical perfection and dream themes.

In the 1980's he began to explore neo-classic art, Oriental art and romantic myths. Today, he is considered one of the best contemporary portrait painters in Italy. At an international level he has painted great figures of the cultural scene, show business and the world of finance, political figures, and the aristocracy of Europe. Some of his subjects have included Cinzano, Rod Stieger, Jonny Hallyday, the President of Senegal. He has received awards in many art competitions throughout Italy as well as numerous commissions for public works and for the Catholic Church. Vadala's work his been included in museum shows throughout his native Italy and in the United States, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York.