The Provocateur of the Contemporary Era In the grand, often self-serious theater of contemporary art, few figures command attention with as much mischievous brilliance as Maurizio Cattelan. Born in Padua, Italy, in 1960, Cattelan did not emerge from a traditional fine arts background, but rather from the tactile world of craftsmanship, having begun his professional journey in the 1980s crafting wooden furniture in Forlì. This early intimacy with material and form would later serve as the foundation for an artistic practice that is as much about physical presence as it is about conceptual sub…