Maurizio Cattelan

Italian, b. 1960. Born in Padua, Italy, Cattelan worked as a furniture maker before initiating his art career as a contemporary Italian conceptual artist. Frequently termed as the art world’s resident jokester, owing to his satirical and sometimes horrifying sculptures, Maurizio Cattelan in his work strives to be as incomprehensible as possible. His humorous transformations of found objects and history alike often spark controversies and are termed as disrespectful towards normally revered subjects. Influences of Dada and Surrealism can be witnessed in Cattelan’s work, including in his taxidermied "Hanging Horses" or "The Ninth Hour" (1999) where Pope John Paul II is struck down by a meteor.