Giovanni Mattio Biography
Giovanni Mattio was born in Cuneo in 1949 and moved to Milan in 1989, where he lives and works. He graduated in Classical Literature in Turin in 1973 and continued his studies in the figurative arts in France, especially in Provence, in Nice, Antibes, and Aix en Provence. He exhibited in group exhibitions in the region and in France starting from 1975, and in solo exhibitions in Italy and France from 1986. After moving to Milan, he began several pictorial cycles such as "telafracta" in 1992, which are large paintings reduced to fragments each destined for its own story. In 1993, he created the "hylochromes", paintings in which the material takes on a primary function on a chromatic, expressive and cultural level. He then creates the "aquaveli", paintings obtained with water colors and tissue paper that give palpability to a transparent surface, and the "zostracon" multi-material ceramics and various forays into the field of engraving. With the beginning of the new millennium, he expanded his experimental research with the volumes and shapes of painted surfaces, creating extroflections, introflections, monitors, lozenges, petals, puzzles, sculptures by addition, and increasingly plastic installations. Mattio has exhibited in numerous collective and personal exhibitions in galleries and public spaces, especially in Milan and Lombardy, including the International Biennial of Contemporary Art (Milan, 1987, 1989), XXXII National Art Biennale City of Milan (Palazzo della Permanente , Milan, 1994), VII Triennial of engraving (Museo della Permanente, Milan, 1994), “Salone Milano” (Museo della Permanente, Milan, 2004), “Painting the immens” (Archivi del '900, Milan, 2008 ), “Una Via Crucis” (Museo della Permanente, Milan, 2008), “Materia” (It's my gallery, Milan, 2009), “Small Art” (Studio Iroko, Milan, 2009), “Traces of matter” (Galleria Zamenhof, Milan, 2010), “Watching Tower” (Chiostri dell’Umanitaria, Milan, 2010), “Permanente 2010” (Palazzo della Permanente, Milan, 2010), and “Elephant parade” (Milan, 2011), as well as exhibitions in Berlin (Milan-Berlin/Metropoli compared – Galerie Verein, 1988), Nice (Art Jonction, 1989), Bologna, Bari and his return to the Palazzo di Città di Mondovì in 2009 attracted great interest.
