catia colagioia

catia colagioia (b. 2001, she/her/they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist, researcher & musician from South Philadelphia with a BA (’24) from the University of Pennsylvania in fine art. catia's process is rooted in her traversal of Philadelphia, in her collection and resurrection of found objects, in the investigation of the objects' memories, and in the systems that deemed those objects obsolete, useless, trash.

There is a shifty logic applied to the objects she uses through her attempts to construct something physically unfamiliar yet already existent within her psyche. While her work possesses an uncanny, angelic quality, it also embodies the systems she references, and their by-products, their shoddy barriers, and their hypocriticalities. She applies care and repair as methodologies, tending closely to the desires of the objects she uses. There is a desire to carry the objects past their status as waste, and into a new territory, where they may allow their properties and histories to communicate in service of something larger.

.....

Click here to view my CV.

Artist member of Vox Populi Gallery in Philadelphia, PA.

.....

Upcoming shows:

surplus, Vox Populi Gallery, opens 9/5/25
opening reception: 9/5/25; 6-9 pm

[title forthcoming], AUTOMAT Gallery, opens 11/1/25
opening reception: 11/13/25; 6-9 pm

.....

unless otherwise stated, all works herein are copyright of the artist & require written permission from the artist for reproduction. © catia colagioia, 2025.

systemically attached to pain, to play, to a body , 2023

found object (crutches, straps, plastic rope knee brace, body, quickrete, plywood strips) sculpture, video, concrete casting

performance of varying duration, size expansive

This project was born out of a knee injury that I sustained. Finding proper care for the injury, as well as care for my generalized chronic pain has been frustrating... Knee braces don't seem to help, and other contraptions are expensive. I began to picture my leg as a sapling on the city street with tension supports (that you often find flopped over) strapped to it, and I thought about how these saplings are situated in such a hostile environment, with fumes everywhere, surrounded by pipes and concrete, forced to grow around them. I thought about how our own bodies are in a similar situation, and how our systems of care can oftentimes fall short, just as those saplings’ tension supports fall down.

I decided to collect these frustrations and channel them into this exploration, so that I could get back into my body, and turn these points of frustration into points of imagination and play. I’ve been recording videos with a camera strapped to my affected leg to understand its perspective and the pain as it accumulates. I’ve also been collecting objects of care like crutches and braces, collecting objects that articulate like knees, casting them into concrete, and putting my body into and around these objects, exploring them, and exploring my own physical abilities. I’m really excited to continue working on this project and to continue examining the relationships between frustration, play, systems of care, industry, the built environment, and the body.

Humanscale Knee, Embedded. 2023, Articulating mount, plaster, concrete, plastic. (as installed with series)