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Michela Cattai

Based in Milan and Venice.

+ Education

  • Graduated in Painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice with Fabrizio Plessi, she starts her research on glass attending the Design course held by Ennio Chiggio, thanks to whom she understands the meaning of semantic and semiotic in the context of Italian design, focusing her study on glass. In this period, she is selected to participate in a collective exhibition at the Murano Glass museum. In 1992, she founds the Galleria Michela Cattai in Milan, with the aim to build an important dialogue between art and design. Carlo Alfano, Rodolfo Aricò, Gianni Colombo, Paolo Icaro, Angelo Savelli, Franco Albini, Ico Parisi and Gio Ponti together with the prestigious manufactures by Fontana Arte, Venini and Ercole Barovier, are just some of the well-known artists inside the gallery. Still bounded to Venice, she decides to deepen the study on glass inside the furnace, experiencing herself the Murano blown glass practice. Learnt the old Renaissance techniques and the glass history of the XX century, Michela Cattai develops the process and through a careful study on color and shape, she realizes abstract artworks that have wrinkled models and different shades of colors.

  • Her creativity takes her to a continuous study and experimentation, which leads her to create contemporary artworks that summarize her history and her identity. The result of her most recent research is shown in the dialogue between glass and recycled materials, through which the artist not only goes far from the classical rules of working glass but also reflects her desire to draw the public’s attention to a global and very contemporary message. In these type of process, the artist works with the awareness of respecting the world and creating something with a responsibility towards the future generations.

+ Exhibitions

  • In April 2017, Michela Cattai was invited to present her research on glass at the Chamber of Deputies in Rome.
  • Her artworks are presented in international exhibitions and fairs and are part of private and public collections. Michela Cattai is currently collaborating with designe and Art Curator for Venini.
  • Last solo exhibition was on May 2019 at Italian Cultural Institute - Tokyo Under the patronage of Italian Embassy in Japan.