About Me
Roberto Coda Zabetta was born in Biella, January 1975. His father was a trader and his mother a housewife. It was in Biella that he began attending the l’Istituto Tecnico Sperimentale (Experimental Technical Institute), and he later completed his studies at the Art Institute of Rome. The support of his brother Stefano was fundamental in his move in that he supported his study and living expenses. In 1995, a year before entering the Academy of Brera, he met the artist Aldo Mondino, whose studio assistant he would later become in 1996 until 2000. Coda Zabetta tells of this experience: " I think true masters are those who are capable of helping you to find your own path. You must only stay there and wait in silence. Aldo was first and foremost this.†Coda Zabetta inherited a way of being and the true concept of art from the Master Aldo Mondino more than the pictorial and practical creative techniques. By 1997 he began taking part in exhibitions and competitions for young artists in Italy and abroad. On a summer night in 1998 his brother Stefano tragically passed away and Roberto Coda Zabetta decided to leave for Morocco and then began painting portraits. He lived for long periods in New York and later in Berlin and his work became more focused on character and action. Identità Anonime (Anonymous Identities, 2000) was his first catalogue dedicated to the children who died during the genocide of Rwanda. In the same year he was awarded the Passaggi a Nord-Ovest (Passages in the North West) by the Pistoletto Foundation and the City of Biella.In 2001 he settled in Milan and began a series of works that would be very important for him.His friendship with Marina Mojana and Luca Beatrice would be fundamental. In the following years, his works In Coda (2003), PPP and Colors (both 2004) were published. He won the award for Young Italian Art at Miart in Milan for two consecutive years. Between 2005 and 2006 there were two important exhibitions: at the Palazzo Venezia and the Teatro India, Rome. Coda Zabetta later had his own exhibitions and also participated in collective exhibitions in public and private locations, which led to a strong critical movement surrounding his work. Another catalogue edited by Robert C. Morgan was published: PSICHIC PERSONA. The Dena Foundation of Paris included him in an international award. The desire to leave returned and he left for Paris and then moved to London where he lived for a year and attended various courses at Saint Martins School. Meeting David Roberts, Martin Holman and Laura Petrillo was fundamental to his stay. Then, he left for Ubud, Indonesia. He travelled the streets of London and Indonesia in search of personal stories and memories, which brought him as far as the centre of the volcano Kintamani to capture far away landscapes. He worked with cancer patients at London’s Royal Marsden Hospital to study whether it is possible to recover from this illness, at least psychologically. In April 2008, The Indonesian National Gallery is dedicating an exhibition to his works. And thus new works are born, drawings followed by ceramics. Coda Zabetta's obsession to search for the embryo and his desire to continue travelling take him to many different places, among which are Africa, India, Northern Europe and the United States.
