Silvano Cattaï: Into the Light

Materially Speaking

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Silvano Cattaï born in Belgium, of Italian parentage, came to be an artist in Italy by way of making films in New York. After years in sculpture he finally came back to painting but this time with a sculptural angle, using a plasma gun and paint on aluminium.

Silvano’s studio houses his powerful plasma equipment, and protective gear. On the walls are metal-working tools, shelves with tubes of oil paints. Around the studio are neatly stacked rows of aluminium.

Silvano mixed his own colours and worked in sculpture in Pietrasanta for many years until he came full circle back to art - this time using the plasma torch at the same time as paint, making sweeping cuts on the aluminium plates.

With sculpture Silvano depended on other people but he came back to painting to be more instinctive, and to work all by himself. He finds painting gives him the freedom to express what pleases him.

Silvano’s garden has myrtle bushes burgeoning with berries, persimmon, lemon and olive trees - all plump with fruit. The view is dominated by the peak of the mountain opposite, with the quarries and the familiar lines of mining scars.

Thanks to Gail Skoff for this collaboration and for the fantastic photographs of Silvano.

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