Andrea Mastrovito

1978, Bergamo, Italy

Andrea Mastrovito is one of the most original and versatile Italian artists of his generation. Trained at the Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti in Bergamo, his practice blends drawing, installation, animation and performance into a hybrid, personal language, in which manual craft becomes a vehicle for strong, poetic concepts.
At the heart of his work is often a reinterpretation of the great myths of art, history and literature, which Mastrovito deconstructs and reassembles through a refined visual and symbolic operation. Paper, glue, glass, ink and pins are the materials he favours to build fragile, layered works, dense with cultural references yet visually striking.
His imagery ranges from Caravaggio to Walt Disney, from Dante to Pasolini, taking shape in works that often spill into the surrounding space, creating total environments or immersive narratives. He has exhibited in prestigious international venues (New Museum, MAXXI, Museo del Novecento, MART) and is especially valued for his ability to combine civic engagement with formal experimentation. He currently lives and works between Bergamo and New York.

Andrea Mastrovito

Trecento, 2008
Pins and tissue paper on poster on polystyrene, 100 × 140 cm

In Trecento, Andrea Mastrovito layers sheets of tissue paper, fixing them with pins, as if embroidering a contemporary fresco that merges historical painting with the ephemeral nature of collage. The protagonist, a mythical warrior with spear and shield, emerges from a fiery red background, almost evoking battle, epic, sacrifice.
The title playfully and poignantly recalls the film "300", but also an entire cultural tradition: Trecento as the century of Italian literature, of Gothic painting, of the shaping of identity. The text in the background - "Get ready for glory" - is at once a slogan, a promise and a condemnation.
The technique, seemingly light and childlike, instead reveals a deep tension between heroism and simulacrum, between the construction of collective imagery and its inevitable fragility. Collage thus becomes a poetic weapon: it deconstructs the epic to return it to us as a plastic vision, suspended between myth and memory.
This work, now part of the private collection of Stefano Rastrelli, testifies to the value of a contemporary art capable of being at once playful and sharp, fragile and powerful, visually incisive and conceptually layered.