Claudia Cannizzaro, a New York artist, of Italian birth, works in mixed media, with a preference for textiles. She originally trained as a painter at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, before moving to New York in 1997. Her work combines traditional symbols and rituals with contemporary thinking and politics, resulting in a fascinating mélange of thought-provoking complexity.

Cannizzaro says of her interest in textile art:

"Since my early paintings in the mid 90s, I never used stretchers or frames and always conceived my paintings as, first and foremost, a manipulated piece of fabric... Inevitably, my paintings soon took a sculptural existence, in which I treated them as three dimensional objects, altering their form depending on the exhibition space.

The juxtaposing of textile and popular topics is of great interest to me. I want to weave together traditions, symbols, and contemporary issues. In times where we can practically live our lives "virtually", online, accompanied by high technology, fast planes and iPhone apps, I felt a strong desire to reconnect with the physicality of art making, through a medium that requires a lot of my time, allowing me to go deep into my subjects."

Cannizzaro has been exhibiting since 1994, and most recently at Pierogi, Brooklyn, NY (2011), Five Myles, Brooklyn, NY (2011), Under Minerva, Brooklyn, NY (2009) Galleria Spazio A, Pistoia, Italy (2007), Centro Cultural São Paolo, Brazil (2006), Torreão, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2006); HDC Gallery, New York, NY (2004), and the Philomatean Society of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (2001).