catia colagioia


catia colagioia is an artist, researcher & musician born, raised and based in South Philadelphia, with a BA from the University of Pennsylvania in Fine Art. She has shown work across Philadelphia and has been recognized for her interdisciplinary, community-facing work. She is currently an artist member of Vox Populi Gallery.

Her process is rooted in her traversal of Philadelphia, in her collection and resurrection of found objects and memories, often likening organic forms in the cityscape to our bodies: both held tenuously, and subject to the encircling pressures of modern systems. There is a shifty logic applied to the objects she uses through her attempts to construct something physically unfamiliar yet already existent within the collective psyche. While her work possesses an uncanny, angelic quality, it also embodies the systems she references, and their by-products, shoddy barriers, and hypocriticalities. She applies care, repair, and automatism as methodologies, instinctually relating and tending closely to the desires of the objects she uses. 

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. 

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Upcoming exhibitions:

SOUL STAKE, Gray’s Warehouse, 3.20.26 - 4.17.26
    opening reception: 3.20.26 7-11 pm.


Current exhibitions:

we call the moon the people’s wife, Pentimenti Gallery, 1.30.26 - 4.4.26
    opening reception: 1.30.26 6-8 pm. artists’ dialogue 6-6:30 pm.



Recent exhibitions:

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

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Click here to view CV.

For all inquiries: studio (at) catiacolagioia.com

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Press:

34th St Mag, coverage for “we call the moon the peoples wife” Feb 2026

Talks/Panels:

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

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



beneath, 2026


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

15 x 10 in.


to go without, 2026


acrylic, charcoal, liquid pigment, carved wood & screen on board.

After Ernst Wilhelm Nay’s “Fisch & Muschel” 1932.

18 x 14 in. 

When I first encountered Ernst Wilhelm Nay’s Fisch & Muschel, I was drawn to the suspension of the objects within fields of light and dark, and I began to consider the metaphoric weight of that suspension. Beyond the symbology of the objects themselves—the ammonoid shell and stick hovering above the light field, the mussel (with its feminine presentation) straddling both fields, and the fish, nearly rotting into a dark heap in the lower field—I found myself thinking about their dissolution, their beginnings and ends, but also, their universality, their ecstatic, enduring mythologies. I imagined a storm many years from now, its wrath unearthing exotic objects to a new people.  The premise of this work is the absence of its subjects. We know why so many absences are felt... We know what happens to the mouths that cannot be saded... and we know that all new beginnings must first endure an end.


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.

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”


a study for the cradle, 2025

 

wood, steel, bricks, cinderblock, pressure, 
2' x 1' x 3'



everything will continue... everything will change. 2025

 

acrylic on paper & charcoal rubbing on plastic, screws, magnets, 15.5" x 10"




the cradle (dawn chorus), 2025


steel, wood, recording of a dawn chorus, brick, 6.5' x 1.5' x 6.5'.
2 hr 33 minute 43 seconds.