Mimmo Paladino

Domenico Paladino was born in Paduli, near Benevento, on 18 December 1948. His paternal uncle, Salvatore, was a painter and introduced him to artistic interests, which eventually led him to attend the Liceo Artistico in Benevento (1964–68).

In 1964 he visited the Venice Biennale for the first time, captivated by the American pop artists.

1968 marked his first exhibition at the Galleria Carolina in Portici (Naples). On that occasion he was presented by the young Achille Bonito Oliva, who would accompany him critically throughout his entire artistic career, including him among the artists of the Transavanguardia movement, and the following year would present him again in a solo show in Caserta at the Studio Oggetto run by Enzo Cannaviello.

In 1977 he moved to Milan. During this period he rediscovered painting and reclaimed colour both in its expressive dimension and in the materiality of pigment: his interest focused above all on the particularity of figuration as language. Abstract and dreamlike images follow one another across large canvases of strong tonal values, spatially defined by geometric structures, branches and masks that draw the viewer in. The years straddling 1978 and 1980 should be read as a transitional period between the conceptual positions he had initially occupied and a renewed attention to figurative painting. The works from this phase are predominantly monochromatic paintings in bold hues dominated by geometric structures, as well as found objects. In 1980 he arrived at the creation of large-scale surfaces and works of powerful visual impact in which he recounts life and the mystery of death. He used engraving and many other techniques to represent his own "inner world", primordial and magical. He soon introduced sculptural elements into his canvases, unsettling critics with his blend of modernity and Arte Povera. The early 1980s became increasingly identified with the assertion of the potential of referential painting. At "Aperto '80", within the Venice Biennale, the art critic Achille Bonito Oliva put forward the Transavanguardia movement, of which Chia, Clemente, Cucchi and Paladino himself were members.

From 1985 he also turned to large bronze sculptures and installations, experimenting with the cross-contamination of different expressive forms. Alongside painting, sculpture is therefore a fundamental part of Paladino's work, as demonstrated by several significant pieces in his exhibition practice — bronze or aluminium casts, often painted wood, but also copper, iron and other materials. Despite their apparent iconic stillness, Paladino's works always retain an ambiguity dense with allusion. The eyeless masks, the archaic profiles of heads, carry emblematic resonances that resist any single interpretation and seem instead to harbour enigmas, unfathomable mysteries or secrets. His output began to gain recognition abroad thanks to a touring exhibition in 1980 that travelled from Basel to Essen to Amsterdam, as well as a solo show at the Badischer Kunstverein in Karlsruhe. As exhibitions of his work followed in quick succession, the artist continued his research through a wide variety of technical experiments, drawing on not only painting and sculpture but also drawing and printmaking. In 1982 he took part in Documenta in Kassel and held several important solo shows; 1985 saw his first retrospective at the Lenbachhaus in Munich. Towards the end of the 1980s his work displays greater rigour and a considerably simplified composition. In 1990 he designed the set for Schiller's *La sposa di Messina* in Gibellina, directed by Elio Capitani, and built the *Montagna di sale* for the first time. 1992 saw the permanent installation *Hortus conclusus* at the university complex of San Domenico in Benevento. In the years that followed he devoted himself more intensively to fine art printing and explored other fields, including ceramics and terracotta. Museums of worldwide renown exhibit his works.

From 2004 onwards Paladino became involved in projects of various kinds and considerable scope across Italy. In 2004 he created the doors for the new church of Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo, contributing to the project designed by Renzo Piano. In 2006 he embarked on a project centred on Don Chisciotte, encompassing an exhibition of paintings, sculptures and a film, which continued with new illustrations and an artist's book. In 2008 he created *La porta di Lampedusa*, a large door in terracotta and iron, a monument dedicated to the memory of migrants who lost their lives at sea while attempting to reach the Italian shores, fleeing their home countries torn apart by conflict. In 2010 he was called upon to design the sets for the concert series by Lucio Dalla and Francesco De Gregori. In 2011 he designed the new room housing the sculpture *Il Guerriero di Capestrano*, dating from the 6th century BC, at the Museo di Villa Frigerij in Chieti, while in 2012 he designed the light installations for the stage of the "Notte della Taranta" in Melpignano (Lecce). 2015 saw his participation in the Venice Biennale, Padiglione Italia, with a dedicated space. The curtain for the Teatro Regio in Parma dates from 2021.

In February 2024 he returned to Bologna with the exhibition *Nel Palazzo del Papa*, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Arte Fiera.

On the international front, Paladino — the first among Italian contemporary artists to exhibit in China in 1994, with his masks and terracotta helmets set against the historic backdrop of the Forbidden City and the Great Wall — returned to Asia in 2024 with a show at the Massimo De Carlo gallery in Hong Kong, presenting a selection of works from 2022 to 2024. The series on display, entitled *Dance Chinoise*, drew inspiration from Claude Debussy and from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, confirming his practice of drawing on literature, music and myth as sources of an archaeology of memory that fuses past and present.

In 2025 the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria commissioned him to create a contemporary predella inspired by Beato Angelico's *Polittico Guidalotti*: across a series of gilded panels, Paladino reinterprets the Angelico's sacred conversation through his own visual language, with material inserts, opening onto landscapes that allude to the Umbrian countryside and transforming the images of the saints into enigmatic presences.

Also in 2025, from 8 November to 18 January 2026, three prestigious Umbrian venues — the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria in Perugia, the Rocca Albornoz in Spoleto and the Palazzo Ducale in Gubbio — hosted a major anthological exhibition curated by Costantino D'Orazio and Aurora Roscini Vitali, featuring over forty works drawn from public and private museums and collections, retracing fifty years of his career. On the occasion of the exhibition, Paladino also created the work *Concerto in piazza*, installed on the façade of Palazzo Baldeschi in Perugia, a tribute to Umbrian traditions reinterpreted in a contemporary key.

Several of Paladino's works are permanently held in Italian museums, including the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples, the Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina (MADRE) in Naples, the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome and the MAMbo in Bologna. Works by the artist are also held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Mimmo Paladino lives and works between Paduli, Rome and Milan.