Athos Collura
Artist from Italy
About the artist Athos Collura
After a few years dedicated to an original experimentation with the collage technique, aimed at giving body and voice to political and social themes (1963-68), he became one of the most authoritative and audacious interpreters of the psychedelic movement in Italy, creating highly suggestive works, including the "Peacock Room", built in 1971-72, completely painted from floor to ceiling. From the 1980s onwards his work is characterized by an innovative metaphysics and surrealism, which define an autonomous research in line with the postmodern climate that was establishing itself. This period, of which the "Confini" cycle (1980/1998) is part, is characterized by compositions structured by images, associated with dreamlike and symbolic representations aimed at expanding the "borders" of the imagination. With the "Visual Codex" series, begun at the end of the nineties, the artist arrives at the crucial moment of his reflection on artistic and visual language, provocatively identifying the barcode as an icon of the consumerist drift of art: the work is characterized from the cancellation of the pictorial image and its illusory overturning, to the continuous search for an exploration of the boundaries of representation and pictorial writing.
- Community member since April 13th, 2024
- Open to collaboration with curators and galleries
Exhibitions
EXHIBITIONS ONLY Galleria 2000 Bologna, 1970 Galleria dei Lanzi – Page of Swords Milan, 1972 Eros Gallery Milan, 1978 Galerie Schèmes Paris – Lille, 1989 Times and spaces of the Enchantment Medieval Fortress, Vignola (MO), 1990 Madison Fine Art Gallery Aspen (Colorado), 1990 – New York, 1991 Beyond the border: Tuscany and Piero della Francesca Montevarchi (Arezzo), 1992 - 1993 Trimarchi Gallery Bologna, 1993 Borders Palazzo delle Cento Finestre, Florence, 1994 Beyond the border (with interventions by Umberto Eco and Gianni Scalia) Cabaret "Voltaire", Bologna, 1996 Anthology Bocconi University, Milan, 1998 The Matalon Foundation Museum cancellation, Milan, 2003 Visual Codex Galerie Maison d'Art, Montecarlo, 2007 Humanitarian Society Paths, Milan, 2012 Athos Collura Crash! Every broken dream Castello Visconteo, Pavia 2013 Athos Collura Crash! Every dream broken. Act II. Spazio Soderini, Milan, 2014
Education
Athos Collura was born in Grotte (Agrigento) in 1940. He has always alternated painting with scenography, staging shows in Italy and abroad. After completing his artistic studies in Palermo, in 1961 he moved to Milan, where he lives and works.