Artwork

The subjects in the paintings by Clelia Catalano, illustrator and painter, never are almost what they seem. As in fairy tales, a magic wand touches the boat and transforms it into a lamp that sounds like a gramophone. The music produced, leaving the boundaries of the canvas, and a feeling that a story is whispered in the night, and creeps into the plots of another painting, awakening of flamingos or a white elephant. Then, rose buds emerge from the waters as the dancers dancing in the shadow of a futuristic and imaginary city.

Clelia made a series of paintings (mixed media: drawings on canvas reprocessed post-press watercolor, acrylic and/or oil) whose subjects flutter insubstantial on the canvas and are intertwined with natural elements, stylized to the point appear to emanations from two-dimensional ‘core wire.

To act as a guard to “daydream” of Clelia Catalano (or the story that we’re telling), are cats with Egyptian profile and mysterious behavior, which embody the fickleness of women. Through the original paintings on canvas, paper and murals, Clelia Catalano realizes macro sets where the focus is usually placed on the female subject, usually two-dimensional alter ego of the artist herself.

Where the boat is going and what is beyond the lights of the skyscrapers of the city? One wonders…
To each one is given to imagine the possible end of the story.