Salvatore Arancio (b. 1974, Catania, Italy) is an artist based in London and Nice whose multidisciplinary practice spans video, ceramics, sculpture, drawing, collage, animation and installation. Central to his work is an exploration of images, how they produce meaning, shift across contexts and can be reframed or destabilized. Arancio treats images as fluid constructs operating across scientific, mythological and historical registers, while remaining open to imaginative interpretation, reflecting the instability of knowledge and our mediated relationship to the natural and ecological world. 

His practice frequently juxtaposes binaries, natural and artificial, mineral and vegetable, scientific and mythological, without resolving them, allowing objects and images to function as sites of ambiguity. Research underpins his methodology, drawing on fieldwork, archives, scientific texts, ethnography and speculative narratives, which are translated into visual systems that resist singular interpretation. Ceramics play a pivotal role in his work, functioning as vessels for memory, fantasy and transformation, referencing geological formations, ritual objects and imagined fossils. His moving-image projects blend documentary and fiction, scientific observation, abstraction, and psychedelic imagery, creating immersive environments that explore temporality, perception and ecological fragility. 

Arancio has exhibited widely in international biennials, including the Venice Biennale (2017), Shenzhen BI-CITY Biennale (2020) and Manif d’Art 5, Quebec (2010), as well as institutions such as MAXXI, Rome; Hayward Gallery, London; Teylers Museum, Netherlands; and Museo Tamayo, Mexico City. His work is held in major public collections including MAXXI, MART, MACTE, Museo Tamayo, and FRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine. He has received awards and grants including the Italian Council (2018), PAC2021 and the New York Prize (2009).

photo: Cyrille Cauvet