Santo Tolone

Form and its aesthetic changeability are at the center of Santo Tolone’s practice. By deconstructing and decontextualizing otherwise trivial details into a source of infinite awareness and sensory pleasure, Tolone reveals unexpected aesthetic, conceptual, and emotional possibilities. A puzzling sense of familiarity runs through his work, as he takes objects from everyday life and morphs them into new forms and compositions. His obsession with production methods, both historical and contemporary, is conveyed in his meticulously crafted works. Drawing on traditional techniques and materials, Tolone creates humorous incarnations of familiar objects, pointing to the infinite variability and complexity of the world as a source of mindful thought and surprising preceptions.

Tolone studied and worked between Italy and England. His background was shaped by a long-term involvement with Isola Art Center in Milan, an artist-run, community-based organisation, as well as through collaborations such as Santomatteo and Mr Rossi.

His work has been exhibited in various public institutions in Italy and internationally, including MAXXI, Rome; Fondazione Zimei, Pescara; Fondazione Nomas, Rome; La Panacée, Montpellier; Fondazione Barucchello, Rome; Triennale, Milan; Palazzo della Permanente, Milan; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaurdengo, Turin; Castello di Rivoli, Turin; Palazzo Reale, Milan; Tate Modern, London; Le Magasin Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble; Villa Necchi Campiglio, Milan; PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan.