Her practice is rooted in her ongoing traversal of Philadelphia. 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.
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Current exhibitions:
MOUTHFUL, Vox Populi Gallery, 5.1.26 - 6.14.26
opening reception: 5.1.26, 6-10 pm.
Upcoming exhibitions:
OPEN, Gallery at Fabriq, 6.26.26 - 9.4.26
opening reception: 6.26.26, 7-9 pm.
Precious Protection, Da Vinci Art Alliance, 7.28.26 - 8.23.26
opening reception: 8.1.26, 5-7 pm.
closing reception: 8.23.26, 12-2 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
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Press:
Space on Space Magazine, coverage for “MOUTHFUL” May 2026 (Image)
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.
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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.
systematically attached to pain, to play, to a body , 2023 - ongoing
performance of varying duration, size expansive
This project refers to a knee injury 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 pictured my leg as a sapling on the city street with tension supports (that you often find flopped over) strapped to it. I thought about how these saplings are situated in such a hostile environment, with fumes everywhere, roots surrounded by pipes and concrete. I thought about how our own bodies are in situated, and how our systems of care fall short, just as those saplings’ tension supports do.
I decided to collect these frustrations and channel them into this exploration, getting back into my body, and turning 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 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 continually excited to work on this project, examining the relationships between frustration, play, systems of care, industry, the built environment, and the body.