Middle Finger By Maurizio Cattelan, Milan, Italy

Cattelan has shown work internationally in many exhibitions including in Manifesta 2, 1998, Luxembourg, Melbourne International Biennial 1999 "Signs live", 2004 Whitney Biennal in New York, “Apocalypse: Beauty and Horror in Contemporary Art” at the Royal Academy Art in London, “Partners” at Haus der Kunst in Munich, “Home is Where the Heart Is” at Museum van Loon in Amsterdam and the 2004 Seville International Biennale . In 2004 Cattelan exhibited the controversial sculpture Untitled featuring 3 hanging kids for the Nicola Trussardi Foundation. He is represented by Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris, Massimo de Carlo in Milan and Marian Goodman Gallery in New York .
Maurizio Cattelan along with long-term collaborators Ali Subotnick and Massimiliano Gioni, curated the 2006 Berlin Biennale , ran the Wrong Gallery , a glass door in New York attracting many highly accomplished artists to exhibit and published Charley: an occasional slightly satirical arts journal. He frequently submitted articles to international publications such as Flash Art .
Cattelan’s personal art practice has led to him gaining a reputation as an art scene’s joker. One his best known sculptures, ‘La Nona Ora’ consists an effigy Pope John Paul II in full ceremonial dress being crushed by a meteor and is a good example his typically humorous approach to work. Another Cattelan’s quirks is his use a ‘stand-in’ in media interviews equipped with a stock evasive answers and non-sensical explanations. Cattelan’s art makes fun various systems order – be it social niceties or his regular digs at the art world – and he ten utilises themes and motifs from art the past and other cultural sectors in order to get his point across. Cattelan saw no reason why contemporary art should be excluded from the critical spotlight it shines on other areas life and his work seeks to highlight the incongruous nature the world and our interventions within it no matter where they may lie. His work was ten based on simple puns or subverts clichéd situations by, for example, substituting animals for people in sculptural tableaux. Frequently morbidly fascinating, Cattelan’s dark humour setted his work above the simple pleasures well-made visual one-liners.