Calato in her studio. Photo by Joe Mazza at Brave Lux.
Chantal Calato (b. 1982) is an American artist raised in Niagara Falls, New York near the infamously toxic Love Canal. Her personal experience growing up surrounded by toxic waste sites has shaped her path as a human and has been the major focus in her art for over 20 years. Calato’s most recent sculptural works are bold and colorful and benefit from her long cultivated super power - garbage picking.
Calato was named Artist of the Year Finalist by Arts Services Inc in 2021 for her solo show UNSEEN at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in 2020. She received the Global Warming Art Project grant from Ben Perrone and the ‘Environmental Maze’ project donors in 2018. Her environmental works have been shown at the Castellani Art Museum, Art Park, Buffalo Museum of Science and Silo City. Calato’s work as an environmental artist is featured in Laura Marris’s book The Age of Loneliness, published by Graywolf Press in, 2024.
Calato holds an M.F.A. from Northwestern University and a B.F.A. from University at Buffalo.