Caterina Ciuffetelli
Born in L'Aquila in 1956, Umbrian by adoption, she lives and works between Terni, Rome, and her hometown. Her initial training took place in the studio of Umbrian artist Battaglini—a leading figure in conceptualism and architectural rationalism—who was active in sculpture, architecture, and graphics throughout the second half of the twentieth century.
An uninterrupted study has always accompanied her artistic career, sustaining its ongoing evolution. Since 1988, she has undertaken non-figurative research with the cycles PRIMARY COLORS, SEQUENCE, WAVE, and FOULE, experimenting with a wide variety of mediums: paper, plaster, plaster, cellotex, sand, aluminum, mirror, polystyrene, thread, and fabric. These materials, used in both two-dimensional and installation works, demonstrate a free and necessary approach to technique, always chosen based on the formal relevance required by the work.
Her creative process begins with the chaos of matter to engage with the forces of composition: diagonals, medians, center, weight, length, thickness, color. It is from this confrontation that the pattern, the supporting structure of the work, emerges. It is not only the physicality of the material that attracts her, but the possibility of making it speak, as in a maieutic operation in which the sign emerges as an expression of the logos.
In 2019, she inaugurated the ASEMIC cycle, a series of works based on a writing devoid of semantic meaning. Asemic writing allows her to "say without saying," maintaining the mystery of meaning and opening it up to the observer's personal interpretation, who becomes an active participant in the work in an attempt to fill the void and give it meaning.
The asemic alphabet also expands to the book object with ALPHABET, an artist's book commissioned by the Archive of Visual Communication and Artists' Books of San Cataldo (CL). In TR-AMANDO, time becomes metaphor and play through a torn and interrupted texture. In RITAGLIARE LUNGO LA LINEA TRATTEGGIATA, he experiments with canvas-backed paper sewn with hand-dyed cord, weaving key geometric elements into the composition. With PRE-HISTORIC, using frottage on paper and cellotex, he traces new asemic signs in dialogue with the traces of prehistory: signs that, like the submerged part of an iceberg, hark back to a primordial language. In MOSAIC, created with frottage tiles, he reaffirms the concepts of wholeness and time, contemplating the possibility of an imperfect order. In L'OMBRA DEL CERCHIO (THE SHADOW OF THE CIRCLE), he employs a dialoguing geometry that has perimeters, measurements, and spaces, yet is not rigidly imposed. Rather, it is articulated and open to change, inhaling and exhaling, and responding to the vibrations of air and light.
He has created artist's books for the Graphiae series by Sergio Pandolfini's Il Bulino and for the Bagliori series by Gaetano Bevilacqua's Edizioni Dell'Ombra. He is featured in the volume Il grande racconto dei classici by Piero Boitani, published by Il Mulino Editore. Approaching the world of printmaking, he attended workshops in woodcut (Xiloreportage) at the Scuola Tool in Rome and in Woodcut Reduction at the Opificio della Rosa, in the Castello di Montefiore Conca (RN), led by Umberto Giovannini. He also took a course in black-and-white analog photography led by Alberto Bravini.
Aesthetics and ethics are inextricably intertwined in his work, driven by a constant search for meaning.
Her ongoing education is fueled by her knowledge of the international contemporary art scene, which leads her to travel constantly. Her works are featured in private collections and public institutions.
Events at Rome Art Week
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Vernissage Monday 20 Oct 2025 | 17:30
2022
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Vernissage Monday 24 Oct 2022 | 17:30-20:30
2020
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2019
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2018
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