Igor Mattio navigates the space between classical discipline and emotional exposure. Born in Italy and based in New York, he uses photography, drawing, and painting to probe contemporary masculinity — where performative strength ends and vulnerability begins.
After training at the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti in Turin, Mattio emerged in the late-1980s Italian scene at the intersection of figuration and conceptual risk. That hybridity has matured into a multidisciplinary practice anchored in photography, with drawing and painting still central to his visual language.
His 2025 monograph, Skin and Under: Evolving Young Machos, Or Not, traced the theme across Colombia, Italy, France, and the US — 256 pages, 192 images, paired with short fiction from emerging writers in four languages, printed in Italy. Skin and Grace (Artfineline LLC, 2026) continues that inquiry in Cuba, trading the earlier book’s cross-cultural sweep for the specificity of one island’s heat and rhythm.
Mattio works from his New York studio, extending his practice from photography into film and publishing.