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About the Artist
Caterina Arciprete was born in Naples in 1974 and grew up in a
family of artists. After graduating from the F. Palizzi Art Institute
of Naples in 1992, she started studying illustration at the European
Institute of Design in Rome, where from 2000 to 2002, she also taught
in the illustration department. After moving back to Naples, she
continued teaching painting and illustration at the Naples Design
Laboratory and Sannazaro high school. In the mean time, she started
working as an art restorer and editorial illustrator.
In 1996, after years of working with watercolors and paper, she
started painting with acrylic paints on canvas, wood panel and Plexiglas,
replacing the subtle colors of her illustrations with brighter and
stronger tints.
She has participated in many group exhibitions in Italy and France,
and a solo show in 2004 following the publication of "Stars,"
presenting the original illustration used in the book, in addition
to a series of paintings on the same theme. This solo exhibit came
to Philadelphia following a very successful show in New York City
in February, 2006.
What the Critics Say
"Metaphysical symbolism, playful deformation of the image,
poetics of movement and sinuosity of the shapes often form the principal
elements of Caterina Arciprete's work. The iconic use of these elements
has helped this young Neapolitan artist affirm her position as one
of the most interesting voices of contemporary painting and illustration
in Italy.
Deformation is a fundamental theme in painting and illustration.
Ms. Arciprete applies it, most of all, to the eyes. They lengthen
until they cross the limits of the face, to underline the importance
and the role of the eye that knows how to look for the most hidden
reality of things. Hands, faces, arms give in with docility to the
need of this inner rhythm and follow the curvilinear spiral-form
direction willingly: a circularity and roundness of lines that wind
around the entire image and produce, in certain cases, the fetal
position, the form being born.
In The Eye of Naples, a glance catches the details of one who is
living its reality: a neck, a corner of the mouth, a discreet cloud.
The eye then composes the image again, as unitary wholeness: everything
is a play of decomposition and re-composition. The isolation of
the subject, on which the artist wants to draw the attention of
the viewer, happens somewhere else in the picture through a well-chosen
play of inner panels that develop the poetics of form and color.
The path towards abstraction, the artist's personal and original
journey in the realm of symbols, is also visible in the landscapes
where, in a rarefied atmosphere, silhouettes of human beings move
around with graceful elegance. Caterina Arciprete makes us travel
through space and time, revealing the sweetness of a fleeting encounter
and the indifference of people, through a poetic path of evocative
images."
-- Adapted from text by Livio Sossi
Individual works from the exhibit are available for sale. To inquire about availability and prices, please contact Mr. Pejman Makarechi (Pejman.Makarechi@jefferson.edu), Director of Medical Media Services at Thomas Jefferson University.
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