Currently residing in Milan, Michela Cattai moved to Venice in 1984 to attend Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, under the guidance of master Fabrizio Plessi.
Later she enrolled in the two-year course of Design, participating in the course "Communicating Vases" held by Ennio Chiggio, a member of the N Group of Padua, thanks to which he familiarized himself with the concepts of semantics and semiotics in the field of Italian design, concentrating her own study on the substance of the glass.
During this period she was selected to take part in a collective exhibition at the Murano Glass Museum. Since 1992 she has been the artistic director of the Galleria Michela Cattai art gallery, in the heart of Brera, Milan, whose program focuses on the fruitful Italian cultural production of the 50s and 70s, with the aim of reconstructing a meaningful dialogue between artistic practices and design.
Among the prominent names featured in the gallery, Giò Ponti, Ico Parisi, Franco Albini, Piero Fornasetti, FontanaArte, Venini, Ercole Barovier , just to name a few.
In April 2017, Michela was invited to present her research with an exhibition at the Chamber of Deputies, in the Sala del Cenacolo, in Rome.
In addition, he has participated in various solo and group exhibitions (Miami / Design Basel, The Venice Glass Week, Chicago Expo, Fog Design + San Francisco Art, Eusart Bolzano, Nomad St. Moritz) also giving rise to acquisitions in museums, in Italy and abroad.
Her works are in fact present in the collections of important international museums, from the Stiftung Museum KunstPalast in Düsseldorf to the European of DDB (German Digital Library), from the Museum of Murano Glass to the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista in Venice.
Her artefacts, all unique pieces, fluctuate in a delicate balance between color, form and material, between art, design and high craftsmanship.
Michela's academic training and the curating of her art gallery in the heart of Brera, of which she has been artistic director since 1992, have allowed her to come into contact with artists, designers and processes that have contributed to enriching her passion for glass and its material and chromatic experiments, creating an important background for his artistic production.
In her precious glasses the reference to masters such as Carlo Scarpa (in the technique of the "battuto") and Paolo Venini (in that of the "engraved") is very much felt, as are the elective affinities with other great designers that the gallery represents. His work fits perfectly into the tribute that Milan makes to design and art in these days of great creative ferment.
Credits
https://www.jamesmagazine.it/art/michela-cattai-ve...
