ARTIST OVERVIEW

Carlo Maria Mariani is a conceptual artist who uses painting as his medium. In the 1970s, Mariani gained international reknown by starting a movement known as conceptual painting—paintings painted with technical brillance and inspired by art history.

The modern context of Mariani's work represents a dialogue between the history of art (from classical to 21st-century sources: Medusa's head, Calder's mobiles, Duchampian imagery), allegories, dreams, and everyday life, to become the artist's personal iconography.

Mariani has exhibited in many European and American museums, including Documenta, the Mathildenhohe Darmstadt; the Frankfurt Kunstverein, Germany; the George Pompidou Museum, Paris; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Frye Art Museum, Seattle; the Hirshorn Museum, Washington D.C.; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia; the Museum of Modern Art, Rome Italy; the Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City; the Groninger Museum, Holland; the Bologna Museum of Modern Art, Italy; and the Museum Palazzo Te Mantova, Italy.

In 1998, Mariani was the recipient of the prestigious Italian Antonio Feltrinelli Prize for lifetime achievement in painting. He has represented Italy three times in the Venice Biennale, with figurative works of timeless beauty and witty sophistication. Mariani continues to receive widespread attention both nationally and abroad.