catia colagioia

catia colagioia (b. 2001, Philadelphia) is a Philadelphia-based artist, researcher, and musician working across sculpture, installation, video, print, and performance. She has shown work across the Philadelphia area, and is an artist member of Vox Populi Gallery and Da Vinci Art Alliance, and holds a BA in Fine Art from the University of Pennsylvania.

Shaped by her upbringing in a low-income area of South Philadelphia contrasted with her time at one of the country’s wealthiest universities, her practice is rooted in her ongoing traversal of the city. It engages the collection and resurrection of found materials and experiences, treating urban debris and overlooked objects as carriers of memory, pressure, and latent agency, often likening organic forms in the cityscape to our bodies: both held tenuously, and subject to the encircling pressures of modern systems.

Through processes of care, repair, and automatism, she reconfigures discarded materials into forms that feel simultaneously unfamiliar and deeply internal, drawing on a collective psychic language. These works often hold tension between the angelic and the abject, exposing the contradictions, failures, and residues of the systems that produce them. She is set on carrying the objects, (and by proxy, ourselves) past their (our) status as surplus matter, and into a new territory, where their (our) properties and histories empower them (us) to communicate in service of something larger.

.....

Current exhibitions:

Upcoming exhibitions:

MOUTHFUL, Vox Populi Gallery, 5.1.26 - 6.14.26
opening reception: 5.1.26, 6-10 pm.

Recent exhibitions:

SOUL STAKE, Gray’s Warehouse, 3.20.26 - 4.26.26
we call the moon the people’s wife, Pentimenti Gallery, 1.30.26 - 4.4.26
Huddle, Vox Populi Gallery, 11.7.25 - 12.14.25
RESIST, Huddle Gallery. 11.21.25 - 11.23.25
Routine & Alchemy, Icebox Project Space, 11.18.25 - 11.23.25
this too is a threshold, AUTOMAT, 11.1.25 - 11.29.25
surplus, Vox Populi Gallery, 9.5.25 - 10.12.25
Low-Tech, Huddle Gallery, 3.13.25 - 3.25.25
stand/still, Charles Addams Gallery, 4.4.24 - 4.13.24
Sports!, Charles Addams Gallery, 11.29.23 - 12.7.23
let me know you are alright, Project Ieerie, 7.28.23 -8.18.23

.....

Press:

Space on Space Magazine, coverage for “SOUL STAKE” Mar 2026
Space on Space Magazine, coverage for “we call the moon the peoples wife” Mar 2026
34th St Mag, coverage for “we call the moon the peoples wife” Feb 2026
Penn Today, coverage for “let me know you are alright” Sep 2023

Talks/Panels:

Alumni Panel, Weitzman School of Design, Feb ‘26.
surplus Artist Talk. Oct ‘25. Link here.

.....

Click here to view CV.

For all inquiries: studio (at) catiacolagioia (dot) com

.....

unless otherwise stated, all works herein are copyright of the artist & require written permission from the artist for reproduction. © catia colagioia, 2026.

Semantics of Possession III, 2026

light, punctured bumpers, rubber gaskets, pulley

80 x 24 in. (viewer may interact with the pulley)

In Semantics of Possession, the materials are things once obtained, once held, once released: vehicular detritus and predispositions…

III) To Lose: through physical interaction with the work, the shifting clarity and emotional heft of different judgements of loss are actively engaged.

Semantics of Possession II, 2026

light panel, car ac condenser unit, concrete

48 x 24 in.

In Semantics of Possession, the materials are things once obtained, once held, once released: vehicular detritus and predispositions.

II) To Possess: the inability to fully hold the image when directly in front of it reflects the tenuousness of the conditions of possession.

Semantics of Possession I, 2026

light box, speed bump fragment, punctured tire

5.5 x 24 in.

In Semantics of Possession, the materials are things once obtained, once held, once released: vehicular detritus and predispositions.

I) To Obtain: via small apertures, the distance from the ability to gain possession, and the lack of consideration of the varying conditions of obtainence are meditated upon.

mask for the gardener, (After Max Ernst) 2026

recovered wood, steel, chain, brick.

5’3” x 12” / variable

Made ot be worn for perfomance in response to “La Belle Jardinere” by Max Ernst.

Performance documentation here.

beneath, 2026

window screen, conte, charcoal, india ink, nuts, bolts, mounted on risograph, affixed to linen.

15 x 10 in.

to come, to go, 2026

steel, twigs, nail, epoxy.

created to be affixed to collaborative painting by Aitor Lajarin-Encina for we call the moon the people’s wife.

4.5 x 2.5 x 1.5 in.

unity in captivity (three ducks together), 2025

risograph print, window screen, nails and twig mounted on plywood.

8.25 in x 13.5 in.

facets, 2025

wood in steel. series of three.

7-8 in. x 3-4 in.

gentle delivery, 2025

risograph print, brick, medium, potential energy.

3 x 7 x 2 inches

the system, the structure, 2025

risograph prints, window screen, hammered steel, nails, twigs, bark, mounted on plywod, articulating mount, wood, sawhorse brackets.

after audre lorde & michel foucault.

64.5 x 48 x 20 inches

the structure is in place, the motive is unclear. 2025

risograph print, window screen, nails and twig, hammer strikes on steel, mounted on plywood.

18 in x 14 in.

the system which defines good in terms of profit. 2025

risograph print, window screen, nails, bark and twig, hammer strikes on steel, mounted on plywood.

after audre lorde.

18 in x 14 in.

touching the other side (it is the restraint), 2025

steel, debris, grass, brick, screws, wood, hammer strikes.

2.75 ft x 2 ft x 5.25 ft

other worlds (after Andrei Tarkovsky), 2025

risograph print, acrylic and window screen, mounted on panel

8.5” x 9.5”

“we don’t need other worlds. we need a mirror.”

when the truth emerges, what must recede? 2025

steel, nails, hammer strikes, mounted on panel

7.5” x 13.5”