Bruno Catalano’s first major public exhibition in the U.S. is now on display!
May 11, 2024, New York, NY
Patrons of Park Avenue (“POPA”) is excited to announce its third ever art installation on Park Avenue in the Murray Hill neighborhood of New York City with world-renowned artist, Bruno Catalano. The Murray Hill Neighborhood Association would like to invite you to the official ribbon cutting event with Bruno Catalano on Park Avenue at 38th Street on Saturday, May 18th at 4pm at Park Avenue Day 2024 with leading international art gallery, Galeries Bartoux.
The “Travelers” series is a series of figurative sculptures that artist Bruno Catalano began in 1995 and continues to work on today. It shows figures frozen in the middle of a journey whose duration, origin and destination remain unknown.
In his work, people from the ordinary world take on a heroic stature. Their monumental scale pays homage to these universal experiences of travel, flight and exile. These individuals carry pieces of life and history in their luggage. Their future is inextricably linked to their roots, keeping them in a precarious balance.
Bruno Catalano depicts human beings torn apart, crossed by a great emptiness that evokes the scars of departures and separations, identities fragmented by trials and tribulations, and shadowy areas in their self-image.
The exhibition features never-before-seen collections of bronze and marble pieces, paying particular attention to the relationship between the sculptures and the textiles, folds and colors that are key features of the Catalano style.
Bags, luggage’s, garments and even the artist’s clay-covered aprons allow the public to plunge into the cloakroom and behind the scenes of creation.
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BRUNO CATALANO
Born in Morocco in 1960, he was ten years old when he left the country with his family to settle in Marseille, France. His father trained him as an electrician, and at the age of twenty he began his professional life working on boats for SNCM. From 1991 onwards, he devoted himself to clay as a self-taught artist. In 2004, a formal invention came to his studio. A simple metal casting accident opened a breach in the body of the sculpture. He decided to seize on this accident and made this tear in the material a central element of his creation. His exhibitions of monumental artworks have toured the world, from Singapore airport to Piazza San Marco for the Venice Biennale, via London, Sydney, Paris and elsewhere. brunocatalano.com
Galeries Bartoux
Galeries Bartoux is an international group with 20 galleries located in France, Monaco, London, New York, Miami and Saint-Tropez representing a whole new generation of artists. The entry into the heart of the international art market was first established in Paris in 2003, New York in 2007, London in 2015, Monaco in 2018 and Miami in 2020. galeries-bartoux.com
Patrons of Park Avenue
Patrons of Park Avenue (“POPA”), a division of the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association, supports the care, maintenance and planting of the malls of Park Avenue in New York City. Funding for the seasonal maintenance programs is provided by donations from building owners, co-op boards, condo buildings, private donations, and grants. patronsofparkavenue.org
Murray Hill Neighborhood Association
The mission of The Murray Hill Neighborhood Association (“MHNA”) is to continue to make Murray Hill a highly desirable place to live, work and visit. MHNA does this through programs to preserve the neighborhood’s historic character, greening and beautification, liaising with local government officials about quality of life issues, providing information about the neighborhood to members, and social events. murrayhillnyc.org
NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks Program
For nearly 60 years, NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program has brought contemporary public artworks to the city’s parks, making New York City one of the world’s largest open-air galleries. The agency has consistently fostered the creation and installation of temporary public art in parks throughout the five boroughs. Since 1967, NYC Parks has collaborated with arts organizations and artists to produce more than 3,000 public artworks by 1,500 notable and emerging artists in more than 200 parks. nyc.gov/parks/art