Mimmo Paladino

A contemporary of Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, and Sandro Chia, Mimmo Paladino was a leader of the neo-expressionist “Transavantgarde” movement in Italy. Paladino’s figurative paintings are invested with emotive religious, and spiritual imagery, which form allegorical tableaux. Taking inspiration from the icons of Europe and North Africa, his compositions’ static construction belies their dynamic symbolic interplay. Recent work, such as Guerriero Occidenttale (1999) have utilized oilstick to create a seemingly ancient, cave-painting effect which compounds their apparent profundity.

Paladino has been the subject of numerous museum retrospectives at venues including the Kunstmuseum in Basel, the Tel Aviv Museum, and the Guggenheim. His work has been included in the Venice, Sydney, and Paris biennials on multiple occasions.