Artist

Kemp integrates contemporary art into its digital identity through a rotating selection of artists.

Why Kemp Art Rotation Program?

At KEMP, we believe contemporary art sharpens the way we see — and the way we communicate. The Art Rotation Program brings that idea into our digital space: each artist’s work becomes part of our conversation, reflecting the precision, discipline and cultural awareness we bring to complex cross-border matters.

Biography of Claudio Massini

Born in Naples in 1955, Massini relocated to Treviso in the early 1980s, after completing his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples in the mid-1970s. He now lives and works in Treviso, Italy. His early exposure to both classical traditions and modernist movements laid the groundwork for his innovative approach to painting and mixed media. His art is characterised by rhythmic patterning, intricate surfaces, and a meticulous layering of pigments and materials, resulting in paintings that verge on the sculptural — rich in both visual and tactile depth.

Massini’s style defies easy classification. Describing his approach as “meta-historical,” he conjures a visual realm that fuses timeless iconography with contemporary material processes. Ethereal church spires, blossoms, maritime vessels, vials, amphorae and antique goblets appear against matte, lacquered backdrops, transforming everyday or folkloric subjects into enchanted forms. His compositions pulse with energy, drawing the viewer into a dialogue between simplicity and complexity, repetition and variation, chaos and order.

Central to Massini’s artistic philosophy is his meditative process. He engraves fine, repetitive lines and curves into each surface with near-trance-like focus, reflecting on universal symbols that transcend time and space. This deep engagement with the physicality of the medium produces works that feel experiential as much as visual — compositions that echo natural cycles and invite quiet contemplation.

Massini’s work has been featured in numerous international exhibitions, including Cassina Projects, Forma Gallery, Paris (2023); Kunsthalle Budapest, Hungary (2005); MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, Italy (2003); and the Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria (2000), among others.

“I was born in my grandparents’ house in Piazza Cavour, Naples, on 13 April 1955, a few hundred metres from the Archaeological Museum and the Academy of Fine Arts. It was at that school that I founded a group of artists later known as the Ambulanti, with whom I exhibited at the Quadriennale di Roma in 1975 and the Venice Biennale in 1976.

Today, twelve images from my work of that period are permanently displayed at the Farnesina… I was searching in urban space for a quality capable of sparking reflection on the meaning of things. I painted objects with great care, because it was precisely in that care that I found my deepest connection with others — care, chromatic harmonies, and original forms… all of this found its way into hundreds of paintings that have animated my world. Expressing one’s own heart is so demanding that I can only say: my work has been like leaning out of a window, while the hands of the blindfolded goddess gently closed my eyes.”

– Claudio Massini