Mimmo Centonze was born in 1979 in Matera (Italy), a famous historical city with beautiful stone houses (amazingly restored and converted into hotels.) In 2019, Matera will be the European Capital of Culture for contemporary art. Centonze is now considered one of the main new Italian and international talents. In future months in New York City, thanks to Luciano Benetton's collection he will join "Capannone" and other workshops at the prestigious Pratt Institute including the international project "Imago Mundi. Map of the New Art," and the "Art of Humanity, Five Artist continent,” already presented in different countries all over the world.
Centonze has been selected as artist for the new Italian contemporary art caExhibitions
Exhibitions and paintings
Mimmo Centonze was discovered some years ago by Vittorio Sgarbi, a famous italian critic, congressman and mayor of Salemi, a small town in Sicily literately transformed in a few years thanks to many artistic exhibitions. Centonze was involved in that project and he joined several exhibitions such as "The Museum of Madness," and “The Museum of Mafia" with a famous painting dedicated to Totò Riina (a famous Italian mafia-man that turned into a provocative art exhibition).
Mimmo Centonze has also exhibited in different art galleries and events in Italy and abroad: in Venice (the Biennale, curated by Vittorio Sgarbi), Rome (Palazzo delle Esposizioni), and Dubai.
The paintings of Centonze are an original new modern art inspired from Impressionism and Futurism with powerful, virtuous colors, full of natural and electric light which is very impressive.
Vittorio Sgarbi and art criticism of Mimmo Centonze
Many critics and art historians (Sgarbi, Philippe Daverio, etc) have critiqued the new Italian talent.
Vittorio Sgarbi said, "Few painters of our time have more than Centonze's sense of the vastness of space. " The Italian futurist, Casalino Pierluigi highlighted the depth of the artistic thought of Mimmo Centonze and his sense of the future. Casalino's opinion was "Mimmo Centonze recovers the value and the meaning of the best futurist painting and adapts it to the 2000's."
In our recent interview for Blasting News Italy, Centonze commented about the Pratt Institue's event, saying "The Luciano Benetton's initiative is useful to understand the pulse of the art nowadays through artworks from all over the world. Some of them are at the top of artistic creativity and they will be better understood in the future.”
