Maurizio Cattelan

Dice, c. 2000

Pencil on gum eraser

1 x 1 x 1 in (2.54 x 2.54 x 2.54 cm)

About the artist

Maurizio Cattelan

Italian

b. 1960

Maurizio Cattelan was born in Padua, Italy in 1960. Based in Milan and New York, Cattelan has exhibited his work widely throughout the 1990s. He has had one-person shows in Europe and the U.S., including projects at Galeria Neon, Bologna (1990); Ars Futura, Zurich (1996); Castello di Rivoli, Turin (1997), Wiener Secession, Vienna (1997); Espace Jules Vergne, Centre d’Art de Britigny-sur-Orge, (1997), INOVA, Milwaukee (1998), The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1998); Kunsthalle Basel (1999); and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2000). Cattelan represented Italy at the 1997 Venice Biennale, sharing the Italian Pavilion with Enzo Cucchi and Ettore Spalletti. In addition, he has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including the Aperto 93, Venice Biennial (1993); Kwangju Biennial (1995); SITE Santa Fe’s Truce (1997); Sculpture Project Munster (1997); Istanbul Biennial (1997); Manifesta (1998); and dAPERTtutto, Venice Biennial (1999). In 1999, he organized the 6th Caribbean Biennial in St. Kitts, British West Indies. His work is the subject of a monograph published by Phaidon in 2000.

Cattelan’s works blur the boundaries between art and entertainment, performance and reality. Situationist humor is key to Cattelan’s work, which provokes the viewer while pushing the boundaries of the self-contained art world and the frame of the exhibition space. His sculptures, installations, actions and performances critique the dominant structures of cultural production, questioning the politics, hierarchies and class systems that define contemporary life.