Domenico Zindato

b. 1966 · Reggio Calabria, Italy

From Berlin’s post-punk nightlife to a quiet studio in Cuernavaca, he now draws worlds so dense they seem to hum.

The life

Zindato was born in Reggio Calabria in 1966 and started degrees in Rome before abandoning university for art. In 1988 he moved to Berlin, where photography, theatre, music and performance collided in multi-media events he staged for the city’s post-punk venues. Travels through India and Mexico followed, then a decade in Mexico City, and since 2005 he has lived and worked in Cuernavaca. The legendary dealer Phyllis Kind discovered his drawings in the late 1990s and represented him until her retirement.

The work

Ink and pastel on paper, laid down with nib pens and fine-haired brushes in a fantastically slow, meticulous technique. Swirls, eddies, eyeballs, floating heads and invented letterforms pack every millimetre, drawing on cave painting, Aboriginal art, Buddhist mandalas and Native American pattern. His work is held by the American Folk Art Museum, the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, the Menil Collection, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Whitworth in Manchester.

Why we love them

He swapped the loudest scene in Europe for the quietest possible mark-making, and the intensity survived the move intact.

Go deeper

• Domenico Zindato at the Outsider Art Fair
• Domenico Zindato on Wikipedia
• Andrew Edlin Gallery
• Where to see outsider art, our full list of museums and collections.
• The glossary, if any of the terms here are new.

Kindred spirits

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