Pietro Catarinella (Rome, 1983) lives and works in Milan. An architect by training, he completed a Master’s degree in fine art photography at Central Saint Martins in London in 2014. It is at this time that he defines his artistic practice: a research with a digital genesis that questions the changes of reality and visual representation in the era of the Internet, social networks and new media. His practice is based upon a continuous manipulation of images. These are intersected, mixed and fused together through the use of software, digital technologies and manual intervention. The denial of the single image brings to assemblages in which the elements are no longer separable but rather become part of multi-layered networks. This process visualizes synthetically the complexity of the digital age, its fragmentation and acceleration, the accumulation and ubiquity of images. In his most recent works, Pietro brings together digital technologies and traditional painting techniques, blending them to such an extent that it is almost impossible to distinguish one from the other. In the Anamorphic Series, images are digitally deformed, printed, applied to different supports and manipulated through painting. At the end of the process, the initial pictures are almost completely unrecognizable leaving space to fractal eco-systems made of quasi-images.

Between 2015 and 2018, his work has been exhibited in London (East London Photography Festival, Green Arcola Gallery and Ashurst Ermerging Artist Gallery), China (Pingyao International Photography Festival), Lithuania (AV17 Gallery), Rome (Mattatoio / Macro Future, Temple Gallery), and Madrid (Nadie, Nunca, Nada, No). In 2018, he is a finalist in the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize. During Vir Viafarini-in-residence, his artistic practice evolves into an investigation of the relationship between digital and physical space, and he is invited by Bruno Barsanti to The Others Art Fair (Turin) to set up his first immersive installation.

In 2019 he creates several site-specific installations including ‘COVER-UP’ and ‘Cave of Forgotten Dreams’ both at Macro, Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome and ‘Google’s Decalogue’ (Spazio Gamma, Milan). His work wins the 2019 Ora Prize, is shortlisted for the ‘Lumen Prize’ in London (2017 and 2019), and the Premio Francesco Fabbri (2019 and 2022). In May 2020, he is part of Studio Visit - 30 artists for 30 days, a virtual exhibition conceived by Fondazione Pini, later published in a volume by Studio Boite Edition. In October of the same year, he founds Armenia Studio, a shared studio project involving 7 artists and a Project Room including a broad program of events ranging from performance (i.e. Phoebe Zeitgeist - Persefone la ferita), participation and events outside the studio (SWAB Barcellona), to art residencies. From March to June 2021, he takes part in two bi-personal exhibitions, the first in Prometeo Gallery by Ida Pisani, accompanied by a critical text written by Mauro Zanchi, the second in the Concordia II space (Milan), a collaboration between the same PROMETEOGALLERY and Vir Viafarini-in-residence. In the same year he is part of Image Streams at Baco, Base Arte Contemporanea Odierna in Bergamo. In October 2022 participated in the exhibition Interferences, organized by NP-Artlab in Padua where he presented for the first time his series of hybrid digital/oil paintings called Anamorphosis.

He is currently working for the exhibition Extension of Selves, organized and curated by the London-based Lumen Prize, and to be held from Jan. 18 to April 17 at the Wuhan Art Museum (Quintai), China.

His work has been acquired by different collections such as Edoardo Monti/Palazzo Monti (Brescia), Vir-viafarini (Milano), Baco / Base Arte Contemporanea Odierna (Bergamo), Neri Pagnan collection (Padova), Giuseppe Frangi collection (Milan)