Hailed simultaneously as a provocateur, prankster, and tragic poet of our times, Maurizio Cattelan (born 1960 in Padova, Italy, lives in New York and Milan) has created some of the most unforgettable images in recent contemporary art. His source materials range widely, from popular culture, history, and organized religion to a meditation on the self that is at once humorous and profound. Working in a vein that can be described as hyperrealist, Cattelan creates unsettlingly veristic sculptures that reveal contradictions at the core of today's society. While bold and irreverent, the work is also deadly serious in its scathing critique of authority and the abuse of power.
Maurizio Cattelan
is one of the leading
contemporary artist and his works are much desired collector's items that often reach
astronomically high prices at auction sales—although the artist is not dead yet.
He runs the artist's magazine
Permanent Food,
Charley and
Toilet Paper.
