Biography
For me the chair is a portrait. Absurdly it becomes a self-portrait
Why chairs, always chairs, only chairs? Perhaps, admits Carla Tolomeo, because they conceal a sin, and indeed possibly they conjure it up. I view a chair, she adds, as a portrait, and it can even become a self-portrait. Carla Tolomeo, artist native of Pinerolo, since 1997 she sets aside her love for painting to devote herself to her new art form: the chair. She no longer represents, but presents. She has emerged from the surface of illusion to create chairs which are real, and yet at the same time unreal. In a certain, manual sense she has become a craftswoman: she works with trimmings and velvets, with foam rubber and elegant fabrics. But the substance of art can undoubtedly be that too. What matters, what is essential, is the final result.
Selected Works
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Carla TolomeoDancing Moons, 2021
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Carla TolomeoDancing Two, 2021
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Carla TolomeoFragolino, 2021
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Carla TolomeoLe Paon, 2020
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Carla TolomeoBlue Parrots Family Twins, 2019
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Carla TolomeoSanto Domingo, 2019
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Carla TolomeoThe Red Palm, 2019
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Carla TolomeoBig Butterfly, 2017
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Carla TolomeoCamelot, 2017
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Carla TolomeoRed Leaves of Summer, 2016-2017
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Carla TolomeoThe Truker's Hand, 2016
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Carla TolomeoPig, 2015
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Carla TolomeoTuttifrutti (Omaggio a Elvis), 2015
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Carla TolomeoLa Main, 2014
Exhibitions
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Carla Tolomeo
Manual de Zoología Fantástica, Viareggio 12 March - 12 June 2022In Viareggio, the Contini Art Gallery and the Lorenzo Viani Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art present the colorful and imaginative works of Carla TolomeoRead more -
Carla Tolomeo & Fabrizio Plessi
Two ways of creating Art, Venice 18 September - 15 November 2020Exhibition paying tribute to Carla Tolomeo and Fabrizio Plessi in the halls of the Venice GalleryRead more -
Carla Tolomeo
Never Rest, Venice 1 June - 28 July 2019The Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation hosts a solo exhibition by Carla Tolomeo entitled 'Never Rest', in collaboration with Contini Art Gallery and setup by Jean Paul Troili.Read more -
Carla Tolomeo
L'Arte di Sedersi, Lugano 22 March - 14 April 2018A solo exhibition of the artist Carla Tolomeo at Aimo Room Concept Store in LuganoRead more -
Carla Tolomeo
The Garden of Delights, Saint Petersburg 14 March - 15 May 2017On display, around thirty chair-sculptures, depicting artist Carla Tolomeo's favourite subjectsRead more -
Carla Tolomeo
Would you like to sit on a work of art?, Cortina d'Ampezzo 11 September - 30 November 2015A selection of thirty sculpture-chairs accompanied by the evocative paintings and watercolours of artist Carla Tolomeo, in a solo exhibition in the heart of the Ampezzo DolomitesRead more
Press
Publications