photo courtesy of Nathalie Schueller

About

From the Tongue paintings of the mid 1990’s to the latest specular paintings of 2024, Cantoni’s artistic practice has always been focused on the way our society creates, reproduces and consumes images. At the root of the work is the idea of attentive looking and having to focus, sometimes literally, in order to see what is in-front of us.

The Tongue Paintings (1993-1996) made after the “massage” paintings, were made by kissing and licking the paint and leaving a trace of the act (Painting had been declared dead, again) sanded and polished the paintings seemed machine made, but were in fact laboriously hand made, and exhibiting reflective and color changing properties defied simple reproduction.

After moving to NY, having decided that licking acrylic paint was not the most healthy career path, DC started working with news imagery published in the New York Times (DC has lived and worked in NYC for the last 28 years). Images that are seen by millions of eyes everyday, permeate a collective subconscious and are then relegated to be “yesterday news” (almost) never to be seen again.

Using photography as a basis for both the burned drawings and interference paintings, the artist creates works that while mimicking photography in their form, are also firmly rooted in the traditions of fine art. Drawings are made by sensitizing paper with pencil, and then exposing it to sun light through a lens, and the paintings reveal themselves as both positive and negative images depending on where they are viewed from as a byproduct of the reflective qualities of the paints used.

Cantoni has also worked in video and sculpture and has made a large drawing installation “111 Years” which comprises a total of 111 burned drawings mapping every war taking place on the planet year by year from 1900 to 2010.

In his more recent works 2015-ongoing Cantoni is recreating parts of printed news images as as drawings and as paintings using the halftone patterns of printing and what is normally considered the digital color system RGB (Red, Green, Blue) making a foray into the inevitable shift of information form the analogue world into the digital.

the Bleach paintings do without paint altogether using the disinfectant to chemically reveal images on every day surfaces like bed sheets and blackout curtains. Refugees on ikea bedsheets ,The gate of the temple of Bel in Syria, the only remainder after the ISIS bombingof the structure revealed by the chemical usually used to erase and destroy.

For his most recent work the Specular Paintings (2024) each work consists of two canvases which are made together, untouched by any tools except for the paint and canvas. Foregoing brushes and in a sense even his own hands, the artist presses the canvases together and smears layers of paint between them, spreading it on both sides at the same time, the paintings almost make themselves. As reflected copies of each other, the two resulting canvases are one and the same but also their own opposite. Though separate, they are both simultaneously “originals” and copies of one another, mirrored counterparts, together become the complete work. Each pair is an invitation to spatial access to a kind of doubled place, a doubled reality. The viewer is located between the image and its mirrored reflection, never really knowing which is which.

Born in Italy, Cantoni completed his BA Fine Art at the Slade school in London where he was awarded a Boise travel scholarship in 1988 for an exchange year at the Hochschule Der Kunst in Berlin. Attended the Royal College of Art and received an MA (RCA) in Painting in 1993. His work has been shown extensively in Europe (lately at the National Archeological Museum of Naples ( MANN)) and the USA as well as South Korea, and is included in many public and private collections, MOMA and OSRAM and RAMO collections amongst others.

Education

1991 – 1993

Royal College of Art, London (MA)

1985 – 1989

Slade School, U.C.L. London (BA)

1988

Exchange, H.D.K. Berlin

Exhibitions

2022

Of Men and Giants : The dreams of History of Elisabetta Farnese
Davide Cantoni’s Burned Drawings in Dialogue with the Farnese Collection Curated By Memmo Grilli

Museo Archeologico Nazionale  Napoli

2018

Blindarte Contemporanea, Milano, Italy

2016

H Gallery, Paris, France

2014

“Les Etrangers” Blindarte Contemporanea, Napoli, Italy

2010

Blindarte Contemporanea, Napoli, Italy

2007

Blindarte Contemporanea, Napoli, Italy
Daneyal Mahmood Gallery, New York

2006

Osram Galerie, curated by Dr. Christian Schoen
Munich, Germany (Catalogue)

2005

Blindarte Contemporanea, Napoli, Italy
Galleria Guido Carbone, Turin, Italy (Catalogue)

2004

Dina4Projekte, Munich, Germany

2002

Galleria Oddi Baglioni, Rome, Italy
Galleria Guido Carbone, Turin, Italy

2001

Grossetti Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy

2000

Grossetti Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy

1999

GAGA, New York City

1998

Galleria Milleventi, Turin, Italy

1997

Galleria Guido Carbone, Turin, Italy

Selected Group Exhibitions

2019

“Intriguing Uncertainties” Parkview Museum Beijing curated By Lòrànd Hegyi.

2018

“?War is over ARTE E CONFLITTI tra mito e contemporaneità“

MAR-Museo d’Arte della città di Ravenna curated by Angela Tecce e Maurizio Tarantino.

“Intriguing Uncertainties” Parkview Museum Singapore curated By Lòrànd Hegyi.

2017

“The Artist’s Voice” curated by Lòrànd Hegyi, Parkview Museum, Singapore

“The Roaming Eye” curated by Katleen Kucka and Jennifer Riley, The Shirley Fiterman Art Center, NY

“Seaman’s House” Curated by Helen Allen, Chelsea NY

“Natura Plastica” a cura di Memmo Grilli, Blindarte Contemporanea, Milano

Cathouse FUNeral “Leaving Home” Cathouse Funeral Migrates North, Beacon NY

2016

Cathouse FUNeral Harvested: The Hunt Intensifies
at Coustof Waxman Annex NY NY

“post-fact” Curated by Micheal Wilson
Zelda Annex Brooklyn NY

2015

“I am a Lie and I am Gold” curated by Marco Breuer
Yossi Milo gallery NY

“PHLOGISTON” International multimedia exhibition
Curated by Kóan Jeff Baysa & Branko Franceschi
Galerija umjetnina / Museum of Fine Arts
Split, Croatia

“Self” Curated by F.Fossati & M.Pellegrin
National Academy Museum NY USA

The Human Condition curated by Diana Jensen
Wesbeth gallery NY USA

2014

Jeunes créateurs à New York Curated by Lòrànd Hegyi
Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint-Étienne Métropole, France

2013

Le Ragioni della Pittura. Esiti e Prospettive di un Medium
Curated by Laura Cherubini & Eugenio Viola,

Fondazione Malvina Menegaz Castelbasso, Italy

Works on Paper Davidson Contemporary NY

2011

Fire Works Hunterdon Art Museum NJ

2010

Burning Desire Micheal Mazzeo Gallery NY

Fire Works Hunterdon Art Museum NJ

Where There’s Smoke Hampden Gallery, University of Massachusetts Amherst.MA

FRAGILE Terres d’Empathie Curated by Lòrànd Hegyi (catalogue)
Daejeon Museum of Art. South Korea

Facebook Patrick Heide Contemporary London UK

2009

Drawings McKenzie Fine Art, New York

Paradies Neue Blicke auf einen alten Traum curated by Alexander Heisig
Diozesanmuseum Freising Germany (Catalogue)

FRAGILE – Terres d’Empathie curated by Lòrànd Hegyi
Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint-Étienne Métropole, France

FaceBook between Empathy and Abstracion
The Drawing Lab, Berlin/Munich/Dresden, Germany

Italian Works on Paper curated by Filippo Fossati & Maurizio Pellegrin
Macy Art Gallery Columbia University

I Can Watch My Thoughts Evolving
The Drawing Lab, Berlin, Germany

2008

Poznan Biennale – Voyage Sentimental curated by Lorand Hegyi
Poznan, Poland

Papier Raum
Galerie Thomas, Munich, Germany

Gangbusters
Plane Space NYC

Questo mondo e’ fantastico – Vent’anni con Guido Carbone
Sale Storiche di Palazzo Bricherasio, Torino (Catalogue/Book)

2007

48th October Salon curated by Lorand Hegyi
Belgrade Cultural Center, Belgrade, Serbia (Catalogue)

Ecce Omo. Percorsi e poetiche oltre l’identita’ di genere curated by Eugenio Viola
Palazzo della Regione, Milano

Arte Povera: Now and Then Perspectives for a New Guerrilla Art
Esso Gallery, New York

Random Selections IV curated by Marc Dennis
George Waters Gallery, Elmira College, New York

2006

Giardino, luoghi della piccola realtà curated by Lorand Hegyi
Palazzo delle Arti, Napoli (Catalogue)

Cabinet des dessins n.2 curated by Lòrànd Hegyi
Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint-Étienne Métropole, France

Best of The Lab curated by Matthew Semmler
Yellowbird Gallery, Newburgh, New York

2005

Napoli Presente curated by Lorand Hegyi
Palazzo delle Arti, Napoli (Catalogue)

Nimbi & Penumbrae
DUMBO Arts Center, Brooklyn, New York

Atomica
Esso Gallery and Lombard – Freid Fine Arts, New York

Wasteland: 21st Century Landscape
Roebling Hall, New York

Auf Papier
Kunstverein Jena und Optisches Museum, Jena, Germany

Micro Universe curated by Hélianthe Bourdeaux-Maurin
The Lab Gallery, New York

Minimalist Art Now curated by Joseph Cunningham
Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Spuren und Zeichen Spurensuche
Versicherungskammer Bayern, Munich, Germany

Carta Canta: works on paper from the XX century
Annunciata Grossetti Arte Contemporanea Milano / Barbara Behan Contemporary Art London

Drawings
Plane Space, New York

Fresh Paint curated by Kóan Jeff Baysa
Cheryl Pelavin Fine Arts, New York

L’Arte In Testa /storia un’ossesione da Picasso oltre il 2000 curated by Luca Beatrice
Museo Arte Contemporanea, Isernia, Italy (Catalogue)

Linie 5 positionen in der zeitgenossischen ziechnung
Dina4Projekte Munich, Germany

Gesellschaftsbilder / Images of Society curated by Madeleine Schuppli
Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland (Catalogue)

Perforations
McKenzie Fine Art Inc. New York

2002

exIT: Nuove geografie della creativitá Italiana curated by Francesco Bonami
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy (Catalogue)

Microwave Three Josee Bienvenu
123 Watts Gallery, New York (Catalogue)

1999

Brief Encounter
Nicholas Profit, Paris

1998

While You Were Out
Fellows Invitational Exhibition, Hudson D.Walker Gallery, Providence, Rhode Island

1997

The Processed Image
450 Broadway Gallery, New York

An American Passion: The Collection of Bob & Susan Summer
McLellan Galleries – Glasgow Museums, Glasgow, UK (Catalogue)

1993

John Moores 18 Liverpool Exhibition
Walker Arts Centre, Liverpool, UK (Catalogue)

1992

East-South Open
Canterbury, UK (Catalogue)

1991

Recent Work
Diorama Gallery, London, UK

1989

Installation For Negative Image at Royal Academy
(Part of “The Art Of Photography” Exhibition)
Royal Academy of Art, London, UK

1985

Amnesty International Grupo Espana 6
Palau Solleric, Palma, Spain (Catalogue)

Collections

MOMA New York
OSRAM Munich, Kasen Summer Collection,
MACI (Museo Arte Contemporanea Isernia)