Artist Spotlight - Carlo Caldara — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Biography

Carlo Caldara was born in Milan in 1965; he lives and works in Vigevano. He graduated in medicine and at the same time attended the School of Nude at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in Milan.
Carlo Caldara has an existential approach to the identity of man in the world. He has an eclectic attitude towards art, with cycles of various works. He uses painting, photography and creates works, sculptures and installations with various materials, such as polymer cement, coal, gauzes, stones and LED lights.

REFLEX OF TRANCIENCE, 2024. Polymer cement and acrylic colours on aluminum mirrored dibond, 98 x 150 x 10 cm

Among the solo exhibitions of recent years:
2013: “Gli Immortali”, curated by M. Corgnati, at the Palazzo del Senato, State Archives in Milan;
2016: “Living your dream”, curated by F.C.Simonelli, G.Monti and E. Beluffi, at the Milan Triennale, on the occasion of the XXI International Triennale; “Lose your mind”, curated by A. D’Amelio, at Palazzo Flangini in Venice, on the occasion of the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale.
2017: “True Story”,curated by C.Strinati, at the Vittoriano Complex in Rome and in the Guatemala Pavilion of the 57th International Art Exhibition - Venice Biennale.

WHERE ARE WE NOW?, 2024. Plywood, aluminum, acrylic cement and acrylic paint on mirror steel, 94 x 150 cm

In 2018, with his wife Arch. Federica Kluzer, he presented the work "Virtual Architecture - Real world" at the Guatemala Pavilion of the 16th International Architecture Exhibition - Venice Biennale,”Stigma”, curated by D.R.Tedeschi. The artist in 2019 He was invited to exhibit at the 58th International Art Exhibition - Venice Biennale, Grenada Pavilion, “Epic Memory”, curated by D.R.Tedeschi, where he exhibited a large globe entitled "MEMORY WAYS".

WE’LL BE THERE, 2023. Polymer cement, acrylic colors, polystyrene, wood, metal prop and Intercom push-button panel on 3 dibond panels, 210 x 450 cm. Some names of Iranian students killed are written on the button panel.

2021: “One for eleven”, Art Week, Turin, Spazio Musa.
2022: “Worring AboutEternity”, curated by M. Ritter, solo exhibition, Opus In Artem, Artsy.
2024: “Whispers of Art”, curated by A.Forni, Vigevano Biennale, Sforzesco Castle, Vigevano.
2024/2025: “Licht und Vergänglichkeit” / “Light and Transience” Benjamin Eck Gallery, Munich
Text by Domenico de Chirico

MEMORY WAYS, 2019. CRS Avant-Gard. Participant at 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, Grenada Pavilion. Globe of 100 cm in diameter, with polystyrene, stones, sand, oil colors and optical fibers. For this work, I was inspired by the speech that the Caribbean poet Derek Walcott gave when he received the Nobel Prize.

Artist Statement

His weighty existential approach, corroborated by a composite style—dense with archetypal forms, autobiographical nods, symbolic mathematical and geological references, objets trouvés cleverly decontextualized and reassembled—leads him through the most impervious paths of an analytical investigation of man’s place in the world, in an attempt to trace the multiple meanings and varied possibilities of interpreting human existence.

WHEN ETERNITY LASTS JUST A MOMENT, 2022. Mirrored steel, polymer cement and acrylic colors. Diameter cm 73.

Promulgator of a very personal Weltanshauung, strongly characterized by his own poetic figure, Carlo Caldara intends to contribute to rewriting human history through a skillful use of matter.
In fact, his vast repertoire of works—which often favors large-scale—ranges from painting to sculpture and from installation to photography, and incorporates various materials, including:
charcoal, cement, gauze, stones, LED lights, and mirrors.

LOVE WILL COME BACK ANOTHER WAY, 2021. Sheet structure, plywood, coal, sand, polymer cement, coat, acrylic colors, rag, chain and led lights 160 x 30 x 225 cm.

The latter, in particular, designate an intimate visual reflection on a polysemous reality and constitute, allegorically speaking, a passage to a further dimension, an alternative pathway combining reflection and mirror reflection as well as an incontrovertible emblem of exploration of an implacable reality here rendered as a sculptural ritual, between reflection and dislocation, illusion and deception.

STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN, 2021. Aluminum, bandages, acrylic colors and led neon, 240 x 35 x 5 cm

Here, corpulent lines, low temperatures, cold lights, and diaphanous organic materials trace something that is now accomplished, speak to us reasonably about human nature, the surrounding reality, and the question of identity, and, through metaphorical images, shape art into a solemn creative act.

https://www.carlocaldara.it/en/
https://www.instagram.com/carlocaldara_art/
https://www.artsy.net/artist/carlo-caldara
https://linktr.ee/carlocaldaraartist
https://www.benjamin-eck.com/en/exhibitions/8227-2/