El Gato Chimney https://steambiz.com:443 en-us Indexhibit Sumi-e - Black Ink Sumi-e, 墨絵 - Black Ink
2024 - ongoing

]]> https://steambiz.com:443/works/black-ink---sumi-e/ 2025-09-03 10:12:19 Artist's Books 2014 - ongoing


]]> https://steambiz.com:443/exhibitions/artists-books/ 2022-05-20 13:16:47 Japan Supernatural 2020 - ongoing


]]> https://steambiz.com:443/exhibitions/japan-supernatural/ 2020-06-22 08:37:34 Shop https://steambiz.com:443/info/shop/ 2020-02-17 16:12:31 True North Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milano, Italy
May 24 - July 21, 2018

While the compass needle conventionally indicates magnetic north, the true north corresponds to the imaginary and constantly moving point of the geographic North Pole, in which all the meridians converge and from which every direction can only lead south. In absolute antithesis to the latter, the impervious and unreachable north stands out as a destination for countless expeditions, yet never completely conquered: a region that hosts dangers and wonders – from the aurora borealis to the arctic mirages and the natural treasures trapped in amber – whose rhythms are punctuated by the polar night and the midnight sun.
More than an accurate position on a map, the term “true north” therefore evokes a place of extremes. Above all, it suggests a mutable and relative concept, the idea that there may exist a highly subjective true north in the imagination of each of us.

For El Gato Chimney, it's that of the perennial ice, but also of the rocky desert of Mongolia, of the tundra of the Inuit and the Sami. The true north of the artist isn't subordinated to topography: it's found where popular magic and shamanic tradition still dominate over reason, but, in particular, where man hasn't been able to prevail over nature, thus adapting himself to its will.
Window To The North, one of the large-format watercolors that form the True North exhibition, excellently exemplifies the notion of the subjectivation of the north. The work depicts an inuksuit, a monument made up of piles of stones, belonging to the cultures of the peoples of the Arctic region. These minimal interventions on the landscape, precursors of Land Art, have a dual function: that of serving both as a reference point and as a sacred place. But, above all, they act like windows and portals, able to frame what is in the visual field and beyond, to mark immaterial thresholds. Through these metaphysical openings it's possible to identify the object of one's own interest, to delimit it and to enclose it between the rock and the earth – in the powerful ritual of superimposing one's inner world to the one that looms beyond the cleft.
Even in the case of At The Shrine, the north represented doesn't correspond to the canonical one covered in snow, and once again an archaic altar of a primordial cult stands on the rest of the work, as if the artist wanted to remember that his influences are inextricably related to magical primitivism. An ovoo is a structure formed by a stack of stones that rises from the plains of the Gobi: conceived as a rudimentary temple for the veneration of the sky and the mountains, during the crossing of the desert it's common to turn around it three times clockwise, in order to guarantee a safer journey.
Yet the snow isn't lacking. During the research on which his artistic practice is based, El Gato Chimney stumbled upon the singular etching of a sphinx made of snow, at the bottom of a book concerning the German Arctic expeditions of the late nineteenth century, which however didn't provide any explanation on the origin of this image. This figure perhaps embodies the spirit of the whole show: hermetic in its deepest essence, it can only induce wonder and invite the observer to solve the enigma. Riddles In The Snow, with its atmosphere suspended in space and time, refers to a crystallized silence, punctuated at times by the crimson – as unexpected as vivid – of innumerable red cardinals that bring mystery to the already inexplicable composition.
Of the latter, In Search For True North and Storyknife capture the limpidity and the rarefied sensations, and above all carry forward the desire for knowledge and discovery of an uncharted and intimate north. In particular, Storyknife, in telling through its title the Eskimo tradition that consists in drawing stories, on mud and sand, with the tip of a specially carved ivory knife, enunciates the artist's will to continue to draw inspiration from these cultures at the extreme edges of the earth – and at the same time, to pass on their suggestions, often too insubstantial to survive independently.

The speculations on the ambivalent quality of the north go far back from the old times to the present ones, but it's mainly during classical antiquity that sharply divergent legends on this liminal place flourish. Two out of all: the one that sees it as a place enveloped in eternal darkness, and its exact opposite, destined to alternate and intertwine over the centuries.
Even the Greeks – from the Homeric poems to Aristotle, who strongly declares the superiority of the Mediterranean peoples – describe it as a region of ineffable barbarism, dominated by a darkness that is as tangible as it's metaphorical. On the other hand, according to the Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia, who mentions it for the first time in his travel reports, the then-known world ended at Thule, a legendary island located six days sailing north from the current Great Britain. Thule, later named by the Roman poet Virgilio as “ultima” – extreme – and therefore peremptorily border of the world beyond which the unknown unfolds, becomes in this way a synonym for all the unexplored territories, full of charm and just as much risk.
Thus it's curious to learn that in the same period could exist a diametrically opposed point of view on the north, which hypothesized the existence of another island, this time idyllic, as described by the Greek historian Hecataeus of Abdera: «In the ocean facing the Celtic Gaul, northward, there is an island, no smaller than Sicily, inhabited by the Hyperboreans, so called because they live beyond the north wind. This island enjoys a mild temperature; its soil is fertile, it produces every kind of harvest [...] The inhabitants worship Apollo more than any other deity. [...] On this island there is a magnificent forest of Apollo and a noteworthy temple, circular in shape, adorned with many votive offerings». Almost as to promise a sort of earthly paradise as a reward for the few explorers capable of overcoming the hostility of the north, and partly to explain the complex attraction that it exerts on man.

As always, El Gato Chimney reconciles both visions in his dual cosmos, fully aware of the fact that solar cult would have no reason to exist in a place without darkness. The emblematic red threads seem to connect the two universes, as well as the artifacts suspended between heaven and earth – objects of everyday use that belong to the Apollonian world of rationality, and which at the same time possess the supernatural characteristics of the Dionysian one.
In re-elaborating the conceptual themes of his previous exhibitions in the spaces of the gallery, the artist further refines his creative process, aimed at bringing to light the subterranean correspondences between the results of the researches of his studies in the fields of animal anthropology, popular magic, shamanism. Above all, he examines in depth the notion dear to him of the circularity of human thought, which causes the Apollonian temple of the Hyperboreans to be identifiable as Stonehenge, which in turn is perhaps the best known among the many monuments of worship erected by the populations that, being deprived of it for most of the year, need more than all the others the favors of the sun.

The whiteness of the papers reflects that of the landscape and those who live there – the ivory and the coats of the animals, the organic treasures torn from these lands – declined in infinite shades because ice and snow, like the idea of the north, are iridescent and fickle: they melt and transmute.
In an interview released in 1965 to the American magazine Life, Andrew Wyeth, a painter of northern masterpieces such as Self-Portrait: Snow Hill (1989), said: «I do an awful lot of thinking and dreaming about things in the past and the future – the timelessness of the rocks and the hills – all the people who have existed there. I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape – the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show».
In the same way, El Gato Chimney abandons for the moment the usual colorful palette in favor of the sober tones of winter, and dedicates himself to an introspective and rigorous research in order to innovate the iconographic language of natural history, pushing further and further north, on a fictitious journey in search of its most elusive quintessence.

Michela D'Acquisto


]]> https://steambiz.com:443/exhibitions/true-north/ 2019-05-25 09:43:58 Eterno Ritorno Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milano, Italy
October 12 - November 4, 2017

An essential element of El Gato Chimney's artistic practice is the research that the artist incessantly carries on by classifying the results of his studies into an archive composed of both objects and merely mental associations that, just like in Warburg's Bilderatlas, connect through not immediately perceivable affinities the matters he deals with: popular culture, the myth, natural history, and the way in which they intersect and repeat themselves. By showing, alongside the works generated by this process, the process itself in the entirety of each phase, it becomes art, thus freeing itself from the supporting role that would see it banished to the simple preparatory stage, and instead turning into the emblem of the importance that the aforementioned underground activity assumes in his work.

Driven by the same taxonomic impulse that has always pushed man to organize nature in the hope of making it his own, El Gato Chimney uses the method of cataloging to highlight the correspondences that govern the relationship between the idea and the work of art. The folkloric figure of the dancing bear is in fact a brilliant narrative stratagem to illustrate this hidden mechanism, as the bear itself represents the winter hibernation and the summer vitality, indissoluble one from the other, that follow each other in an eternal return not unlike that of the circularity of human thought.
The life-size watercolor Otto Mesi D'Inverno E Quattro D'Inferno (Eight Months Of Winter And Four Of Hell), whose title refers to the two relentless seasons that constitute the cycle of the year in the Alps, has as a protagonist a bear that, while still presenting the decorations typical of the farming ritual ceremonies – aimed at ensuring good health and abundant harvests – stands out on the underlying village, finally free from human yoke.
Also in the work Ogni Verità È Ricurva, Il Tempo Stesso È Un Circolo (All Truth Is Crooked, Time Itself Is A Circle), a clear allusion to the Nietzschean theory of the same name, the bear rebels against human duplicity, which, by loading it with propitiatory symbologies, would like to tame it and make it harmless, actually eradicating its feral and wild nature.
To accompany the two large-format watercolors, not only historical photos on the subject belonging to the artist's collection, but also a cloth mask inspired by European folklore, imbued with popular magic.

In Eterno Ritorno, El Gato Chimney thus presents a complex examination on the archive as an art form, while at the same time making us aware of the inescapable impossibility of human attempts to dominate the animal world.

Michela D'Acquisto


]]> https://steambiz.com:443/exhibitions/eterno-ritorno/ 2019-05-25 09:43:39 Other Paintings

]]> https://steambiz.com:443/works/paintings/ 2017-02-14 11:07:53 Installations

]]> https://steambiz.com:443/works/installations/ 2017-02-14 10:04:56 Sculptures

]]> https://steambiz.com:443/works/sculptures/ 2017-02-14 10:04:35 Bio Lives and works in Milano, Italy.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2025
• In The Shadow Of The Giant Frog, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milano, Italy, curated by Ivan Quaroni

2023
• Voyages, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Artsy online exhibition
• One Hundred Demons, James Freeman Gallery, Artsy online exhibition

2021
• Dictionaries Of The Wind, William Baczek Fine Arts, Northampton, USA
• Bands And Feathers, Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee, USA

2019
• Gardens Of Illusion, William Baczek Fine Arts, Northampton, USA

2018
• Observing Nature, Contemporary Istanbul, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Istanbul, Turkey
• True North, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milano, Italy, curated by Michela D'Acquisto

2017
• Eterno Ritorno, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milano, Italy, curated by Michela D'Acquisto

2016
• The Forest Fire, Galería Combustión Espontánea, Madrid, Spain

2015
• Preternatural History, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milano, Italy, curated by Michela D'Acquisto
• De Rerum Natura, Stephen Romano Gallery, New York, USA

2014
• Metapsychic Paths, Galería Combustión Espontánea, Madrid, Spain

2013
• Crossroads, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milano, Italy, curated by Michela D'Acquisto

2011
• Double Fantasy, Studio D'Arte Fioretti, Bergamo, Italy, curated by Ivan Quaroni

2010
• Steam Box, Two Windows Project, Berlin, Germany
• Steam Funfair, Avantgarden Gallery, Milano, Italy

Selected Group Exhibitions

2026
• Creature Comforts, Visions West Contemporary, Denver, USA

2025
• NOT - Not Only Toys - Quando l'illustrazione prende forma, Palatium Vetus Museum, Alessandria, Italy

2024
• Lounge Room Collector, NERAM - New England Regional Art Museum, Armidale, NSW, Australia
• The Best Advice I Have Ever Got Was From A Bear, Visions West Contemporary, Denver, USA
• Popland, KochxBos Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Pittori D'Italia, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milano, Italy, curated by Ivan Quaroni

2023
• An Almanac for Wilderness, Visions West Contemporary, Bozeman/Livingston, MT, USA
• Birds Rising, Brassworks Gallery, Portland, OR, USA
• 35th Anniversary Exhibition, Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee, USA
• 10 Years Of Varsi, Varsi Gallery, Rome, Italy

2022
• Eccentrici, Apocalittici, Pop. Inferno E Delizia Nell'Arte Contemporanea, Galleria Civica Di Trento - Museo Mart Rovereto, Trento, Italy, curated by I. Quaroni and M. De Pilati
• Bookworks, James Freeman Gallery, London, UK
• Who Killed Bambi?, Dolomiti Contemporanee, Casso, Italy
• On Nature, Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee, USA

2021
• When Urban Attitudes Become Contemporary Art, 21Gallery, Villorba (TV), Italy, curated by Cesare Biasini Selvaggi
• Don't Wake Daddy XVI, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg, Germany
• Animalia, Haven Gallery, Northport, NY, USA
• Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milano, Italy, curated by Luca Beatrice
• 25th Anniversary Exhibition, William Backzek Fine Arts, Northampton, USA
• Wallflowers, Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee, USA

2020
• As Kingfishers Catch Fire, Limerick City Gallery Of Art, Limerick, Ireland, curated by Austin McQuinn
• Visioni Laterali - L'Arte Irregolare Tra Ieri E Oggi, Museo MU.VI, Viadana, Italy
• The Dog Show, Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee, USA
• Dream Weavers - Neo Fabulists II, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg, Germany
• All The Things, Roq La Rue Gallery, Seattle, USA

2019
• Don't Wake Daddy XIV, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg, Germany
• Mythic Menageries, Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee, USA, curated by Fred Stonehouse
• Encounters: Honoring The Animal In Ourselves, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto, CA, USA, curated by Selene Foster
• Mother And Child, Dorothy Circus Gallery, Roma, Italy
• Spheres Of Confluence, Talon Gallery, Portland, USA

2018
• Don't Wake Daddy XIII, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg, Germany
• Early Modern Matters, James Freeman Gallery, London, UK
• Animal Kingdom, William Baczek Fine Arts, Northampton, USA
• Material Earth: Myth, Material And Metamorphosis, Messums Wiltshire, Tisbury, UK

2017
• Don't Wake Daddy XII, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg, Germany
• Reliquaries, Beinart Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, curated by Jean Labourdette
• Premio Cairo, Palazzo Reale Di Milano, Milano, Italy, curated by Michele Bonuomo
• The Wild Wood, James Freeman Gallery, London, UK
• HEY!, Galerie Arts Factory, Paris, France
• Animal Kingdom, William Baczek Fine Arts, Northampton, USA

2016
• Nothing Is Real, MAO Museo D'Arte Orientale, Torino, Italy, curated by Luca Beatrice
• Language Of The Birds: Occult And Art, 80WSE Gallery, New York University, New York, USA, curated by Pam Grossman
• Don't Wake Daddy XI, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg, Germany

2015
• Opus Hypnagogia: Sacred Space Of The Visionary And Vernacular, Morbid Anatomy Museum, New York, USA
• Mappa Dell'Arte Nuova, Fondazione Cini, Venezia, Italy, curated by Luca Beatrice
• Not Man The Less, But Nature More, Summerhall, Edinburgh, UK, curated by M. D'Acquisto and H. Knox Yeoman
• La Famosa Invasione Degli Artisti A Milano, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milano, Italy, curated by L. Beatrice and I. Quaroni
• Praestigium Italia - Imago Mundi, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, Italy, curated by Luca Beatrice

2014
• Abundantia Cornu Copiae, Stephen Romano Gallery, New York, USA
• In Missa Interfectionis, Stephen Romano Gallery, New York, USA
• Mysterium Cosmographicum, Stephen Romano Gallery, New York, USA
• Mal D'Africa, Ego Gallery, Lugano, Switzerland

2013
• Immagini D'Io, Triennale Di Milano, Milano, Italy, curated by A. Guerriero and A. Mendini
• Aliens, Palazzo Vernazza, Lecce, Italy
• Surreality Show, Officina Delle Zattere, Venezia, Italy, curated by S.F. Micciche' and
  J. Kogler

2012
• Past Forward, Museo Civico, Bassano Del Grappa, Italy, curated by G. Cervi
• Pop Surrealism - Stay Foolish!, Museo Casa Del Conte Verde, Rivoli, Italy, curated by A.
  Icardi and A. Mazzanti

2011
• Into The Future, Musei Capitolini - Centrale Montemartini, Roma, Italy, curated by A.
  Oppenheimer
• Vulpus Pilum Mutare, Museo Civico, Bassano Del Grappa, Italy, curated by Carolina Lio
• Brand New Art, Mambo - Villa Delle Rose, Bologna, Italy, curated by Luca Beatrice
• Brand New Art, Museo Del Palazzo Della Penna, Perugia, Italy, curated by Luca Beatrice

2010
• Brand New Art, Museo Della Permanente, Milano, Italy
• La Forma Delle Reti, Museo Nazionale Della Scienza E Della Tecnica Leonardo Da Vinci,
  Milano, Italy
• Hunt & Gather, Thinkspace Gallery, Los Angeles, USA, curated by Tina Ziegler

2009
• Breaking Walls, Museo Fondazione Luciana Matalon, Milano, Italy, curated by A.
  Mantovani
• Il Canto Della Terra, Città di Castellamonte, Italy, curated by V.A. Sacco
• Modart Magazine Group Show, Thinkspace Gallery, Los Angeles, USA, curated by H.
  Levey
• Urban Superstar, Museo D’Arte Contemporanea MADRE, Napoli, Italy, curated by D.
  Vecchiato

2008
• Scala Mercalli, Auditorium Della Musica, Roma, Italy, curated by Gianluca Marziani
• Amaze/2008, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium, curated by Sztuka Fabryka

2007
• Incontemporanea 01, Triennale Di Milano, Milano, Italy

2006
• Bovisa In Linea, Triennale Di Milano Bovisa, Milano, Italy, curated by A. Mininno
• More, Fiera Campionaria, Milano, Italy, curated by M. Cocchi

2005
• Urban Edge Show, Spazio P4, Milano, Italy
• Street Virus, Ready Made Studio, Milano, Italy, curated by A. Mininno

Art Residencies

2026
• Omnirica.Spazi Desideranti, Casa Degli Artisti, Milano, Italy

Art Fairs

2024
• ArtVerona, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Verona, Italy
• The Others Art Fair, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Torino, Italy

2022
• London Art Fair, James Freeman Gallery, London, UK

2019
• Expo Chicago, Tory Folliard Gallery, Chicago, USA
• London Art Fair, James Freeman Gallery, London, UK

2018
• Scope, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Miami, USA
• Pulse, William Baczek Fine Arts, Miami, USA
• London Art Fair, James Freeman Gallery, London, UK

2017
• Pulse, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Miami, USA
• Scope, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, New York, USA

2016
• Pulse, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Miami, USA
• Scope, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Basel, Switzerland

2015
• Pulse, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Miami, USA
• Mulafest, Galería Combustión Espontánea, Madrid, Spain
• The Metro Show, Stephen Romano Gallery, New York, USA
• Artefiera, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Bologna, Italy

2014
• Aqua Art, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Miami, USA
• Room Art Fair, Galería Combustión Espontánea, Madrid, Spain
• Swab Art Fair, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Barcelona, Spain
• Step Art Fair, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milano, Italy
• Scope, Black Book Gallery, New York, USA
• Artefiera, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Bologna, Italy

2013
• Aqua Art, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Miami, USA

]]> https://steambiz.com:443/info/biocv/ 2017-02-10 02:12:26 Contact E-mail: elgatolk at gmail dot com
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