SILVIO CATTANI

Silvio Cattani is the Director of MART Rovereto Museum. A multifaceted artist of national and international renown, he is also the founder of the Fortunato Depero Art Institute, the Director of the Spoleto Academy of Fine Arts, and a recipient of the Italian Order of Arts and Letters.

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Born in Trento, Italy, in 1947, Cattani graduated in lithography from Urbino and in painting from the Venice Academy of Fine Arts. His artistic research developed in the Venetian milieu of the late 1960s. At a very young age, he exhibited at the Il Tragetto Gallery and presented his sculptural works at national art exhibitions. In 1968, he won an award for designing the Bevilacqua La Masa Theatre in Venice.

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His first exhibition in Trento took place in 1968, when he presented a series of lithographs titled Theory of the Collective at the exhibition Unopiùsei, curated by Luigi Lambertini, held in the halls of Palazzo Pretorio. This event marked the beginning of the artist’s frequent participation in major solo and group exhibitions. In this series of works, one can perceive the importance of form in space—geometric, informal, and sometimes with figurative references.

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Until the mid-1970s, Cattani taught painting while engaging with Italy’s cultural heritage. Since 1976, he has served as Professor of Painting at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Trento. In 1987, he founded and led the Fortunato Depero Art Institute, maintaining long-term ownership while taking on other prestigious positions.

As early as the 1980s, he developed a strong interest in ancient materials such as glass and ceramics, working in a glass factory in Murano as well as ceramic studios in Faenza and Macerata, incorporating innovative technical solutions into his practice.

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His work embraces multiple languages, spanning painting, literature, and poetry. Over the following decades, his artistic research continued, and he held significant exhibitions in cities across Italy and internationally, including Germany, Lille, Paris, and at the Contemporary Art Museum in San José, Costa Rica.