Francesca DiMattio facts for kids
Francesca DiMattio (born 1981) is an American artist from New York City. She creates amazing paintings and ceramic sculptures. Her art mixes ideas from architecture, design, different cultures, and history.
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About Francesca DiMattio
Early Life and Education
Francesca DiMattio grew up in the Chelsea area of New York City. Her mother was a college counselor and also worked with ceramics. Her father was a scientist at NYU Medical Center.
Francesca went to public schools in New York City. She graduated from LaGuardia High School of Music and Art in 1999. She then studied art at the Cooper Union, earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2003. Later, she received her Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University of the Arts in 2005. Today, she lives and works in New York City and Hillsdale, New York.
Francesca DiMattio's Art Career
Painting Style and Themes
Francesca DiMattio creates paintings that blend different spaces. She uses ideas from architecture, various cultures, and historical events. Her paintings often combine patterns, textures, and images. She makes these different elements fit together in a logical way, even if they seem chaotic at first.
Her large paintings on canvas have been shown in famous galleries. These include the Saatchi Gallery in London and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.
Unique Ceramic Sculptures
Since 2014, Francesca has also started making ceramic sculptures. These sculptures are often large and powerful, showing a mix of feminine strength and playfulness. She breaks apart and reassembles many different ideas. These ideas come from art history, children's books, cartoons, pop culture, and even traditional crafts.
Even though her sculptures look like they might be made from ready-made pieces, Francesca sculpts and glazes everything by hand. Her sculptures are very detailed and complex. Each angle shows new ways she has experimented with ceramics and glazes. She layers and fragments different elements. This creates a conversation between various cultures and styles. It shows how art can be changed and reinterpreted.
Exploring Scale and Expectations
In DiMattio's art, things often don't behave as you might expect. She changes the size of objects. For example, tiny figures might appear much larger than life. Flower designs can seem to spread everywhere, like a virus. Parts of bodies might change into plants or animals. Through her paintings and by mixing art with craft, she brings old ideas into the modern art world.
Notable Sculptures and Meanings
Her ceramic sculptures include huge candelabras. These are like large candle holders. They are full of historical references, showing how old ceramic styles can influence modern lighting. She also creates "totems," which are tall sculptures. These totems are inspired by ancient Greek statues called Caryatids. Caryatids are female figures used as columns to support buildings. DiMattio's totems make us think about the strength and burdens women carry today.
One large sculpture, She-Wolf (2018), is nine feet tall. It makes people think of a famous poem about a "rough beast" coming into the world. Her Caryatid works show how she mixes different ideas. They combine masculine and feminine, playful and serious, old and new, and high art with popular culture. DiMattio takes traditional ideas of femininity and adds new parts to her sculptures. Her work suggests that these figures are freed from their old roles. This layering in her art is not just visual. It also represents freeing the female body from traditional views.
Architectural Themes in Paintings
DiMattio also paints buildings and structures. She uses architecture to rethink how we understand space. In her paintings like Ladder and Broken Arch, elements crash into each other. They get tangled and exist together. This makes us think differently about perspective and space. Her work seems to be somewhere between abstract art (shapes and colors) and figurative art (things that look real).
In Boston, DiMattio created a large artwork called Banquet. It was made of five big canvases. She was inspired by the museum's architecture and its location by the water. Banquet mixes indoor and outdoor spaces and includes images of ships and the sea.
Challenging Traditional Views
In 2015, DiMattio designed a sculpture called Chandelobra. This piece showed her idea of changing the typical image of a chandelier. Chandeliers are often seen as delicate and feminine. But she turned them into something unexpected and powerful.
Another sculpture, Bloemenhouder (2015), features hundreds of porcelain pieces decorated with flowers. The sculpture is very ornate, and the floral designs cover the bottom part. This sculpture shows how DiMattio finds balance and beauty through breaking things apart and using abstract art. Some people might find DiMattio's art unusual. However, her bold styles, glazes, and designs encourage viewers to think differently about traditional ideas of beauty.
Exhibitions
- 2005 – Paradise Lost, Marvelli Gallery, New York; -First Look, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, NY
- 2006 – New Work, Salon 94, New York; -The General's Jamboree- Guild & Greyshkul Gallery, New York
- 2007 – Abstract America, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK; -Unhinged, Laxart, Los Angeles, CA; -True Faith, Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York; -Killers and Their Hiding Places, World Class Boxing, Miami, FL
- 2008 – November Again, Harris Lieberman Gallery, NY
- 2009 – Futurescape, Contemporary Art Galleries, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT; -Master of Reality, curated by Joseph Wardwell, The Herbert and Mildred Lee Gallery, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA; -Salon 94, New York Salon 94 Freemans, New York, NY; -Decollage, Locust Projects, Miami, FL
- 2010 – Francesca DiMattio, Sandra & Gerald Fineberg Art Wall, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; -Francesca DiMattio/Garth Weiser, The Suburban, Chicago, IL.; –Portugal Arte 10, Lisbon, Portugal
- 2011 – Bouquet, Conduits Gallery, Milan, Italy; -Extended Painting International, Prague Biennial, Prague, Czech Republic; 8 Americans, Alain Noirhomme Gallery, Brussels, Belgium; 4 Rooms, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland
- 2012 – Francesca DiMattio, Table Setting and Flower Arranging, March 17 – April 21, 2012, Salon 94 Bowery, New York, NY; -Modern Talking, Cluj Museum, Cluj, Romania; -Four Rooms, CSW Zamek, Warsaw, Poland
- 2013 – Vertical Arrangements, Zabludowicz Collection, London, England
- 2014 – Francesca DiMattio: Housewares, Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, TX
- 2015 – Confection, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, England; -Domestic Sculpture, Salon 94 Bowery, New York, NY
- 2018 – Boucherouite, Salon 94 Bowery, New York, NY
