Mimmo Paladino

MIMMO PALADINO

Domenico Paladino, called Mimmo Paladino, is one of the most important painter of the Trans Avant-garde, a movement founded by the famous art critic Achille Bonito Oliva.

He was born and grew up in the south of Italy, in Paduli, a place full of mysterious cultural contaminations. The artist has always loved the “different"; in fact, during the 80s, he made many long journeys, one of the most important in USA. There he made his first solo exhibition. During his journey in South America he got the chance to know the local culture and learnt the primitive and tribal art. Paladino transcribed this experience through the particular use of signs, symbols and colours, and created a totem sculpture in bronze, wood and limestone and many other permanent installations.

The meeting with Achille Bonito Oliva was very important because he introduced Paladino to the Trans Avant-guarde movement, which was based on the return of the figurative painting oppositely to the conceptual art developed in the 70s. Paladino and the others members of the movement: Enzo Cucchi, Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente and Francesco De Maria, gave importance to the handmade painting practice and the work tools.

The process is primary for Paladino; in fact, he was interested in the support as paper, canvas or any other tool needed to create his artworks, which was created either with pencil, colour pencils and other unusual instruments. Eclectic artist, Paladino’s works vary in many aspects, from little works on canvas to big installations, developing a visual language where details and elements from different times and places - such as Egyptian, Etruscan and Early Christian art, with which he experiments with different tools and techniques- are brought together.

I feel closer to a painter of 1200 period instead of a romantic painter of 1800 period. I'm fascinated by this magnitude hidden under the anonymity, I like the humility of those who created his masterpiece. These figures of unknown genius are beautiful.