Mauro Perucchetti

Mauro Perucchetti

Italian, b. 1949

Mauro Perucchetti brings together the Conceptual,[1] Minimalist[2] and Pop Art traditions in a painstakingly sculpted body of work made of resin and crystals, chrome and steel. Reliant on symbols to convey meaning, his attractive, light-hearted pieces deal out pointed political and social critique, subtly addressing some of the most pressing issues in contemporary society.

Born in 1949 in Milan, Perucchetti was an only child. Initially taking a job in Milan, he then moved to Rome and enrolled for classes in theatre studies. Starting to act in film, he worked with Elizabeth Taylor and Andy Warhol in The Driver’s Seat (1974).[3] More film roles followed and he set up a production company, hoping to initiate something better than the current spate of kung-fu movies. Changing course once again, he relocated to London and threw himself into interior design work. During this period he developed a new wall finish and his Venetian polished plaster, using techniques from ancient Pompeii, became the basis of a successful international business.

In 2000, Perucchetti sold his design and architectural practice and his home so he could become a full-time artist. Finding contentment in dedicating himself to art – something he felt he had to do – he spent the next three years experimenting with materials before perfecting the formulation of the plastic he wanted to use and patenting it. It was lustrous and transparent, forever changing under different lighting conditions, but also chemically hazardous. ‘Perucchetti’s use of polyurethane resins is pioneering’, writes art critic Elspeth Moncrieff. ‘Resin has an innate instability and is even more difficult to control when foreign materials are embedded within it. Like prehistoric insects captured in the sticky ooze of the amber resin that killed them while preserving them, Perucchetti entraps his objects for all time. His work is totally beguiling. It is high-tech, of our time, bright, clean, and utterly original.’[4]

With bold, synthetic colours and pristine, shiny surfaces, Perucchetti’s art appeals to the eyes and to the sense of touch. The ‘jelly babies’ he has made from 2002 onwards show him playing games with childhood associations. In Cloning Factory neat rows of the tiny figures, coloured like blackcurrant and lime, strawberry and orange, are laid out on shelves, with random babies standing up and teetering on the edge. The message is sinister, the imagery ‘sweet’.

Perucchetti’s bejewelled sculptures challenge consumerism and greed. In Precious One, a life-size female form is encrusted with Swarovski crystals while her head is impaled with syringes. An entire toilet and toilet-roll holder blaze with precious stones in Because You’re Worth It; diamond-studded toilet paper is, as art critic Edward Lucie-Smith suggests, ‘as pithy a metaphor as one can imagine for useless, senseless and perhaps injurious luxury’.

With witty elegance Perucchetti moulds heart-shaped perfume bottles which on closer inspection turn out to be hand grenades; their title is Heart Attack. Similarly, in Totems to Warmongering, giant lipsticks turn out to be warheads. Perucchetti takes society to task for its ridiculous preoccupation with brand names, he attacks distortion of religion, jokes about recycling and addresses addiction. He engages with social concerns without moralising and without the anger of many of his contemporaries. Asked in early 2009 why he makes art, he explained: ‘I wish I could be a politician to govern fairly, a religious leader to guide pragmatically and a powerful entrepreneur to serve as an example and inspiration to others, but I can’t. However what I can do hopefully is create art that makes people think about global issues.’

With pieces in public collections in the United States and Britain and in many private collections, Perucchetti has achieved considerable international acclaim since his late arrival on the art scene. His work has been the subject of solo and group shows across Europe and America, including Blast! held in London and Paris in 2006–2007, Apopalyptic (2009) and Modern Day (2010–2011).