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Mimmo Catania
Born	1955 (age 68–69) Vittoria, Sicily, Italy
Alma mater	Accademia di Belle Arti di Urbino
Occupation	Painter

Mimmo Catania (born 1955 in Vittoria, Sicily) is a painter. He works also as a graphic artist, draftsman, photographer, installation artist and writer.

Life

He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino where he studied painting from 1980 to 1984, and moved after graduation to Berlin where he has been living ever since.

Career

In 1995, he was artist in residence at Art/Omi Artists international Residency, Ghent N.Y., supported by the Senate of Berlin, in 1996, he spent six months in Israel with a grant from KULTURFONDs Berlin, where he was also invited as a lecturer at the Haifa University, Department of Fine Arts, and at the Wizo College. In 1998, he was artist in residence for six months at the Casa di Goethe, thanks to a grant of the DaimlerCrysler Foundation, Rome.

In 2005, he received the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, New York, and again in 2016.

In 2007, he was artist in residence at the Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, with a grant of the Joan Mitchell Foundation, New York, and in 2008 in Beijing.

Works

Catania mainly works as a painter in oil on canvas. At the beginning of his artistic career he was strongly influenced by informal art, which allowed him to create artworks in his very own personal style. Following a residency at the Casa di Goethe in Rome in 1998 Catania turned to figurative art by developing a very special language which he calls ‘meta-realism’. They recall images which belong to our collective memory. They deal with crises of identity, aggression and loneliness, as virulent phenomena of our time.

In the series of ‘Attacks’ (2013) or ‘Burning cars’ (2014) Catania turned to topics of crude and primordial energy.

Other works capture spaces/interiors that are impossible to define, in which volatile light sources mark unstable levels of reality.

In his paintings gestural expressions are severely reduced. The focus is on the absence rather than on the presence, backgrounds swap with foregrounds, the rules of perspective are suspended, interiors are bloated. The cohesion of the world is in dissolution, pattern of carpets, ornaments have gained their own lives, various light sources are disorientating, reflections make it impossible to understand what is inside and what is outside of one's sphere.

Writings

His novel “Quattro secondi di Nero” was published in 2018 by Albatros/Il Filo, Rome. Ranging from comic to grotesque, it deals with the contemporary art market, “inspired”, as the author says “by not entirely unlikely events.”

Residencies and grants

Solo exhibitions (selection)

Group exhibitions (selection)

Catalogues (selection)

“Odd One Out”, Verlag für zeitgenössische Kunst und Theorie, Berlin, 2017
“Overturn”, Galleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea Montevergini, Siracusa, 2016
“Storm”, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA, 2015
“Reunion | Works 1982–2012”, Verlag für zeitgenössische Kunst und Theorie, Berlin, 2012
“Markers”, 49. Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 2001
“Schattensprung”, Warsaw -Berlin, Museumspädagogischer Dienst Berlin, 1994
“Reflessioni”, Galerie Lou-Lou Lazard, Berlin, 1990

Works in Public Collections

Works by Mimmo Catania are in the Francis Greenburger Collection, New York, DaimlerChrysler Casa di Goethe, Rome, Museum Bagheria, Bagheria, Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Künstlerförderung des Landes Berlin, IIC,Los Angeles, IIC, Colonia, Tallinn City Hall, Tallinn, Galleria Civica Arte Contemporanea, Marsala, Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe

Interviews (selection)

2016 Brainard Carey: Interviews from Yale University Radio WYBCX
2013 Marie j Burrows: Painting no-place but still smiling. Artparasites, Berlin
2009 Selma Karadza: Unexpectedly on the Expected Events. Depo Portal, Sarajevo

References

1. Christoph Tannert: On Mimmo Catania’s meta-realism, 2015, in: Odd one out, 2017, p. 6–7
2. ^ “Reunion | Works 1982–2012”, blurb, 2012
3. “Here all phases of our dehumanized existence are transformed into a cinematic forlornness … Catania’s paintings give us a treatise on the post-aesthetization of violence in the purest sense.” From: Mimmo Catania: Overturn, by Robert C. Morgan, 2016, in: Odd one out, 2017, p. 15
4. "Quattro secondi di Nero - Mimmo Catania | Bookstore". www.albatrostore.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2024-06-08.
5. http://vfzkt.com. ISBN 978-3-944295-19-0
6. http://vfzkt.com. ISBN 978-3-944295-00-8
7. "Mimmo Catania". 7 August 2016.
8. "Artparasites – How Art You Today? |". Artparasites – How Art You Today?.
9. "DEPO Portal". depo.ba.

External links

• Mimmo

• 1955 births
• Living people
• Painters from Sicily
• People from Vittoria, Sicily