Christian Calabrò

Originally from Zurich, Calabrò came to New York City to study graphic design and his talent immediately landed him employment at Sony Music, Universal Music Group, Warner Records – among others. The fiercely competitive market pushed him to refine every last detail of album cover art for musical giants like Rage Against the Machine, Depeche Mode, Tony Bennett and many more. His design work even earned him two Grammy nominations, but he also watched up close as the recording industry convulsed and sales plunged.

Witnessing these changes and the increasingly harsh “bottom line” mentality inside the culture, Calabrò was gripped by a need to move away from the computer and use his hands again. He scavenged weathered posters from city walls all over the world in an almost archeological way of remembering. Drawn to a face or a font, he would tug at an aging corner and see what came off. Then he started to experiment with applying these little scraps of
history to surfaces.

Calabrò layers his torn treasures sometimes 20 or 30 strips deep before again peeling them away. It’s a process of obscuring and rediscovering that he then articulates further using charcoal
or acrylic.

What remains are filaments of time, glimpses of obscure musical aspiration, and distressed commercial imagery embellished by Calabrò’s paintbrush. He said in a recent interview, “You forget what’s there. Once you start digging, you find the unexpected,” which is true of the process, and in a way, the experience of viewing the end result.