Cato

Cato is a multidisciplinary artist and musician based in London. Cato pairs acrylic, collage, and airbrush in his paintings, and through his practice aims to explore art history, belonging, and Black culture. Cato paints vibrant scenes, constructed from old photographs of jazz musicians, street culture, and Black heroes. The heads and hands in Cato’s paintings are depicted in outsize scale, and Cato considers how we might catch glimpses of facial expressions and become curious about people, sparking recognition and empathy. Once his figures’ heads and hands are completed, Cato cuts out these silhouettes and collages them onto a canvas ground, adding geometric collage forms cut from painted canvas to suggest interiors or street scenes. The visible edges and deliberately disjointed quality of his paintings reflect the artist’s fascination with the energy of these interactions.