Giuseppe Veneziano

Veneziano = Cattelan – loved by some and hated by others; to remain impassive is unthinkable. Giuseppe Veneziano (Mazzarino, Italy, 1971) expresses the first pivotal point of his poetic art: he deals with history like chronicles and chronicles like history. Or rather, he puts the surreal chronicle of reality on a stage. The Sicilian artist is truly obsessed with illustrated books of art history; without inventing anything, from nothing he is capable of finding inspiration in images familiar to us. Veneziano’s art is unmistakable, his chromatic code flat and sugary. He has truly digested postmodern art and when it comes to the concept of dealing with art form the past he is averse to an easy justification of conceptual art; his universe is all about painting as an hypothesis of re-inventing the world. His art focuses on political and controversial themes with a twist of satire through the use of cartoon characters, famous pop figures and politicians.

Veneziano has been described as one of the greatest exponents of “Italian New Pop” and of the group “Italian Newbrow”. As described by Ivan Quaroni, one of the critics who has followed Veneziano’s career: “Today, I can say that Giuseppe Veneziano is one of the most important artists of our generation. The only one who has been able to overcome the elitist boundaries of the art system, to be understood by a wider but no less sensitive to beauty, public.”