No Joke
Maurizio Cattelan has been called many names, but do not call him an imposter – “an impostor is someone who wants to be someone else… I am who I’ve always been.” Maurizio, the troublemaker, grew up in an industrial town in northern Italy, faking his parents’ signatures on school report cards. Maurizio, the outsider, received no formal art training but has been hailed ‘the most famous Italian artist since Caravaggio.’ Maurizio, the heretic who dropped a meteorite on the pope (La Nona Ora, 1999), holds no institution sacred – not even the art world. A century after Duchamp’s Fountain (1917), Ma...
Bio
Maurizio Cattelan (he/him) was born in 1960 in Padua, Italy.
Collaborations
Maurizio cofounded the creative studio TOILETPAPER with photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari. They produce a biannual magazine, art books, and a wide range of merch. The duo also directed Vanity Fair’s 2022 Hollywood Issue featuring stars like Idris Elba, Nicole Kidman and Andrew Garfield.
Auction
Comedian (2019), the duct-taped bananas that broke the internet when it debuted at Art Basel Miami, fetched an astonishing $6.2 million at Sotheby’s in November 2024.