Artistic Essay

Adriano Catenzaro

The artist produces his work through the combination of cutouts from different materials, in an investigation that explores graphic experimentation with organic and geometric shapes coupled with an interest in visual elements from the cityscape. His work is situated on the border between fluid shapes and figuration, using collage on paper and other materials. This process results in works with broad chromatic diversity.

Catenzaro has participated in art shows and juried exhibitions since 2013. In 2017, he was selected to participate in the 2nd Mostra Bienal Caixa de Novos Artistas and in the 13th Bienal Internacional de Curitiba. Adriano Catenzaro’s art is taken as a reference for art education in schools, and he is also the author and illustrator of the books Capitais brasileiras (2019) and O mistério da ilha desconhecida (2022).

About His Works

For more than two years, Catenzaro portrayed 1,056 architectural symbols in Brazil’s 27 Capital Cities. The materials left over from that series were used as structural elements in the series Moradas [Dwellings], making an analogy with the process by which dwellings are built.

The shapes of the membranous structures inside flowers served as a basis for creating the compositions of the Antera [Anther] series. The artist drew artworks that represent a pollen producing system, an essential element for the propagation of life on the planet.

In Estruturas [Structures], the artist uses paper cutouts as elements for designing structures of support and agglutination. These compositions can represent buildings, edifices, architectural skeletons created by human action, as well as webs, cocoons and other woven organic structures created by nature. In the end, everything is fused together in a symbiosis, forming a structural organism.

An extensive collection of various discarded bank cards, tax payment receipts, paper currency and payroll control sheets gave rise to the series Crise [Crisis]. From this material, the artist created a mass of numbers and fragments of financial documents, conveying the idea of an expanding fungi colony. The work represents a living organism, that grows and feeds, taking over all of the space surrounding it. Here, interest on credit, loans, fines and resources received in advance are growing uncontrollably.

How To Cite This Article

CATENZARO, Adriano. “Ensaio artístico.” Revista Observatório Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, n. 34, 2023.

ADRIANO CATENZARO is a visual artist and illustrator. Born in 1979, in Curitiba (PR), where he lives and works, he holds a BA in industrial design and a postgraduate degree in packaging design from Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná (PUCPR).