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About Catalino

Catalino is an established full time professional artist who has dedicated his entire career to exploring Roman mortar as an artistic medium. Coloured mortar has a unique intrinsic luminosity, as well as a deep spiritual value, being the only artistic medium connecting the entire art history, from the cave paintings to modern mural art. Mortar is one of Civilization's seven main discoveries: Civilization was built on it, both literally and symbolically.

Catalino sees using coloured mortar in his work as an ultimate artistic responsibility, and as a homage to civilization. Working with coloured mortar best integrates the artistic work with the human and natural environment, and it is thus in the best position to positively influence it.

Starting from his extensive experience in Renaissance Sgraffito and after more than 10 years of arduous research, Catalino has successfully transformed coloured mortar into complete artistic medium. Catalino uses a powerful colour palette and a wide range of artistic expression, which includes figurative, non-figurative and abstract.  

Catalino's career to date spans three phases; the first two phases, which lasted about a decade each, concluded in 2001.

Between 1975 and 1988, Catalino experimented in a variety of visual arts fields, media and techniques. However, he developed an early interest in large scale mural art: the highlights of Catalino's work during those years are the ten major murals he created, totalling over 9000sq.f. Seven of these works were traditional Sgraffito murals, figurative, non-figurative or abstract, created for public spaces, both indoor and outdoor, in various resorts and cities in Europe.

Between 1989 and 2001, Catalino focused on overcoming the constraints of traditional Renaissance Sgraffito. These were years of intense research and exploration, rewarded by having successfully transformed coloured Roman mortar into a complete artistic medium. From a rather rigid range of applications, coloured mortar is open now to endless possibilities of aesthetical expression, and can be successfully applied on a variety of support surfaces. Coloured mortar can be now used for any type of visual art work, of any scale and style, using an unlimited colour palette, an unlimited range of textures, and absolute freedom of design. Finally, having freed coloured mortar from the constraints of traditional Sgraffito, Catalino's technique opens a new era for mural art, as coloured mortar is the best medium for large scale murals, being both artistically versatile, and having excellent durability and mechanical properties. During this second phase of his career, Catalino has created numerous coloured mortar art works in this new technique: 9 major murals, totalling over 2,000sq.f, and over 100 art panels (between 2ftx2ft and 4ftx8ft each). This was also the stage of his initial investigations into traditional Fresco on coloured mortar.  

Around 2001, the phase of exploring the technique, of pushing its boundaries was complete: Catalino was mastering the technique of using coloured mortar as a complete visual art medium. This allowed Catalino to embark on what is Phase III of his career: focusing on artistic exploration using coloured Roman mortar and Fresco.  

Catalino's artworks are in public places and in private collections in Europe, Canada and the US.

Interested in non-religious art in Fresco on colored mortar and Sgraffito? Click here for other Fresco and Sgraffito artworks.

About Catalino    About Catalino's technique