Atelier Kalo Mancuso

An inner journey through symbolism, color, and the unconscious

A perpetual inner journey free from all formal constraints. Kalo draws inspiration from the Maya and Aztec peoples, studies ancient religions, and explores spaces that materialize and unfold ceaselessly in search of the resolution to his inner journey. From Mayan and Aztec traditions to a contemporary exploration of the use of color. For Kalo Mancuso, his studies in philosophy and religion contribute to imbuing his works with an aura of symbolism. Highly material forms, made of tensions and intrigues, that become entangled in the reflection of a continuous search, of an inner analysis in full swing. One element never leaves Kalo, and a single leitmotif has followed him since the beginning of his career: the frame that encloses each of his paintings and seeks autonomy and character for the whole. As if his figures needed to be enclosed within a frame so as not to escape the canvas, he never fails to draw this border: the figures are always trying to break free from it, ready to seize the perfect moment to finally come to life. The hand is not guided by a mind conscious of what it is about to represent, but the unconscious takes the upper hand, and what is in Kalo’s soul pours onto the canvas through her gestures.

Biography, Education, and Educational Activities

Kalo Mancuso was born in Basel (Switzerland) in 1976. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, graduating with a grade of 110 cum laude. His first major solo exhibition took place in 1998 at the Zoe Spazio Arto Gallery in Rome, where he was part of the “Gruppo Romano.” For years, he has been developing a style of painting in which the thickness of the material pigment creates an intense expansion that brings forth visionary allusions to the themes of the earth, the morphology of roots, and the layers into which they sink: “into the soul of things.” He currently teaches Drawing in the evening art courses at the “Paolo Gentile Lanfranchi” School of the Il Maestrale Association and Art History at the Cristoforo Marzoli Institute of Higher Education in Palazzolo sull’Oglio.