Olnick Spanu News

Gioia Marchegiani’s illustrations for Maria Lai’s story “Il campanellino d’argento” have been selected to be exhibited at Bologna Children’s Book Fair (3-6 April 2017) |   January 14, 2017

Gioia Marchegiani’s illustrations for “Il campanellino d’argento”, a story by Maria Lai, an artist featured in the Olnick Spanu Collection, have been selected to be exhibited at the International Exhibition of Illustrators during the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, which will take place from April 3 through April 6, 2017.

In Summer 2017 Gioia Marchegiani’s illustrations will be published by the publishing house Topipittori in the Book “Il campanellino d’argento,” a story by Maria Lai inspired by a fairy tale belonging to the Sardinian tradition, thanks to the support of Maria Sofia Pisu, Maria Lai’s niece and the President of the Fondazione Maria Lai. The book will be published in the series of almost classical fairy tales.

Gioia Marchegiani is an illustrator and painter based in Rome, Italy. She graduated in Illustration at the European Institute of Design, Rome and she co-founded a non-profit culture association, Semidicarta, which intends to promote reading and creative educational activities.

Further information about Gioia Marchegiani che be found here.

The exhibition Murano: Glass from the Olnick Spanu Collection is on view at the Consulate General of Italy in New York through February 24, 2017 |   January 10, 2017

The exhibition Murano: Glass from the Olnick Spanu Collection is on view at the Consulate General of Italy in New York through February 24, 2017.

The show, open by appointment only, features a selection of Murano glass works dating from 1914 to 1933 drawn exclusively from the Collection of Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu and it is a tribute to the celebrations of the 70th Anniversary of the Italian Republic.

Watch this fascinating interview with Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu to discover more about their over 500 hand-blown Murano glass works and the singular passion that inspired them in their journey into glass collecting.

More information about the exhibition can be found here.

Massimo Bartolini at the 3rd Pune Biennale, India, until January 29, 2017 |   January 9, 2017

Olnick Spanu Art Program artist Massimo Bartolini presents a new sculptural installation for the 2017 Pune Biennale, India, on view until January 29, 2017.

Taking the form of a small amphitheatre around a tree in one of Pune’s leafy gardens, Sambhaji Park, this social sculpture is meant to be both symbolic and functional; while surrounding a tree, it will become a venue for short dance performances.

Bartolini’s work is featured among 21 other artists brought together by curators Zasha Colah and Luca Cerizza for the flagship exhibition of the Pune Biennale, now in its third edition. The title—Habit-co-Habit—reflects the dynamic nature of living together in a big city or a city, like Pune, which is rapidly growing.
More information about the 2017 Pune Biennale can be found here.

CARNET DE MIART in conversation with Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu on Italian Avant-Garde in the USA |   December 22, 2016

Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu in conversation with Bianca Stoppani, editor Carnet de Miart, Milano on the main challenges in bringing Arte Povera and Italian Art to a US audience.

Read the article here.

ARTECINEMA screenings: A Selection of Italian Films on Contemporary Art at Casa Italiana on December 9 |   December 6, 2016

On December 9, 2016 (6.30 pm – 8.30 pm) Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò, in collaboration with ArteCinema and sponsored by Magazzino Italian Art, will be hosting screenings of a selection of Italian Films on Contemporary Art curated by Laura Trisorio.

Among these, at 7.05 pm, the film Posatoi documenting the creation of a site-specific work by Olnick Spanu Art Program artist Francesco Arena, will be shown.

Check the detailed program here.

Artecinema is an international festival of films on contemporary art, established in Naples in 1996 with the objective of making various facets of contemporary art known to the public at large. This objective has been attained by presenting a selection of documentaries of important artists, architects and photographers who have been active during the last fifty years. Biographies, interviews, narrations edited with archival material allow the spectators to gain insight into the world of art and follow the artists at work in their studies or behind the scenes of major international projects and exhibits. Directors and artists are invited to the Festival to personally present their films.

More information can be found here.

Kindly RSVP here.

VENUE:

Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò
24 W 12th Street
New York, NY 10011
Telephone: (212) 998-8739
casa.italiana@nyu.edu

Murano: Glass from the Olnick Spanu Collection opening at the Consulate General of Italy in New York on December 5 |   December 1, 2016

The exhibition Murano: Glass from the Olnick Spanu Collection is opening at the Consulate General of Italy in New York on December 5, 2016. 

The show, open by appointment only from December 5, 2016 through February 24, 2017, will feature a selection of Murano glassworks dating from 1914 to 1933 and drawn exclusively from the Collection of Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu.

The exhibition will be a tribute to the celebrations of the 70^th Anniversary of the Italian Republic and is part of a cycle of events associated with La Serenissima: Music and Arts from the Venetian Republic festival, that celebrates the stunning artist legacy of the Venetian Republic. Led by Carnegie Hall, its program of events falls between February 3rd and February 21st, 2017, during Venice’s famous Carnevale. It will feature more than a dozen musical concerts from that time period as well as partner events at leading cultural institutions across New York City spanning different arts genres.

The Olnick Spanu Collection of hand-blown Murano glass is a breathtaking tribute to craft and design, color and light, featuring over 500 hand-blown works from the 20th and 21st century. Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu first expressed their singular passion for glass, created on the island of Murano, by diligently choosing pieces from the 20th century—the most significant period in the history of Muranese glass. Their journey into glass collecting includes artists such as Artisti Barovier, Fulvio Bianconi, Napoleone Martinuzzi, Carlo Scarpa, Ettore Sottsass, Archimede Seguso, Lino Tagliapietra, Paolo Venini and Massimo Vignelli. Artists such as Cristiano Bianchin, Yoichi Ohira and Laura de Santillana show ethereal, early 20th-century works by the celebrated Vittorio Zecchin in juxtaposition with contemporary works. Also featured are works from the start of 21st century by Giorgio Vigna for Venini.

More information can be found here.

It is the last week to visit Ornaghi & Prestinari exhibition at Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò |   November 30, 2016

It is the last week to visit Ornaghi & Prestinari exhibition at Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò, on view until December 9, 2016.

The show, curated by Vittorio Calabrese and organized in collaboration with Magazzino Italian Art, Cold Spring, New York and Galleria Continua San Gimignano/ Beijing/ Les Moulins/ Habana, features both sculpture-installations and works on paper and on wood, attesting to Ornaghi & Prestinari’s interest in materials and in new interdisciplinary methods of approach.

Mattino (Morning), 2016, painted wood, alabaster sculpture, photograph courtesy of Galleria Continua San Gimignano / Beijing / Les Moulins / Habana © 2016 Ornaghi & Prestinari.

Blending together pictorial and plastic figuration, reflections on art history and personal life experiences, Ornaghi & Prestinari invite the viewers into an intimate and delicate universe. Their practice is focused on dualities between thought and action, concept and manual activity, with a particular attention for spontaneous and unpredictable intuitions.

Explore the exhibition reviews here:

Ornaghi & Prestinari on Artnet

Ornaghi & Prestinari on Paper Magazine

Ornaghi & Prestinari on Artinfo

Ornaghi & Prestinari on I-Italy

Ornaghi & Prestinari on Cura Magazine

Ornaghi & Prestinari on Artribune

Ornaghi & Prestinari on Mousse Magazine

Ornaghi & Prestinari on La Voce di New York

Venue: NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò

24 W 12TH Street (bet. 5th and 6th Avenue), New York, NY 10011

Mon – Fri: 10am-5pm

Further information can be found here.

Michelangelo Pistoletto’s first personal exhibition in Cuba opening on November 25 at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana |   November 23, 2016

The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, in cooperation with Galleria Continua and Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto, announces the first personal exhibition ever presented in Cuba by Michelangelo Pistoletto, an Italian artist considered fundamental in the birth of Arte Povera.

The exhibition will open on November 25, 2016 and will be on view through March 13, 2017. The selection of works included in the show offers a wide panoramic view of Pistoletto’s career including both some more emblematic historical works belonging to the early stages of his activity, such as Oggetti in Meno (Minus Objects), 1965-1966 and the Venere degli stracci (Venus of the rags), 1967-1974, and more recent works. Among the latter, a new series of Mirror Paintings specifically produced for this exhibition venue, inspired by Pistoletto’s stay in Cuba in 2015, on the occasion of his participation in the XII Biennale of Havana.

The eighteen new mirrors depict the daily life in Cuba, showing, on top of reflection backgrounds, people photographed on the streets or in common spaces, busy with simple daily activities, without posing for the lenses or with forced gestures.

From November 22 to November 24 the Gran Teatro de la Havana Alicia Alonso will host the Third Rebirth Forum “Geographies of the Transformation”, an initiative organized by Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of Cuba, the United Nations and Galleria Continua to discuss future transformations of Cuban society.

More information about the exhibition and the Forum can be found here.

Wolfang Staehle’s work on view at the Metropolitan Museum in the exhibition The Poetics of Place: Contemporary Photographs from The Met Collection |   November 22, 2016

The work of the German artist Wolfang Staehle will be included in the exhibition The Poetics of Place: Contemporary Photographs from The Met Collection, organized by Doug Eklund, opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 12, 2016.

The 60 works in the show will survey the diverse ways in which contemporary artists have photographed landscape and the built world over the last half century.

The exhibition will open with works from the late 1960s and early 1970s by artists working in America and Europe, such as Bernd and Hilla Becher, Dan Graham, and Donald Judd, who brought the lessons of Minimal and Conceptual art to bear on views of nature, both raw and acculturated.

It will conclude with recently made works by artists including Matthew Brandt, Roe Ethridge, and Wolfgang Staehle—whose mesmerizing piece Eastpoint (September 15, 2004) (2004–6) projects a 24-hour cycle of over 8,000 still images synchronized to real time of the same Hudson River that inspired such American painters as Thomas Cole and Frederic Edwin Church.

The show will be on view through June 25, 2017. Further information can be found here.

Bruna Esposito’s solo show “davvero” / “truly” opening on November 16 at Federico Luger Gallery, Milan |   November 15, 2016

“davvero / truly”, a solo show of Olnick Spanu Art Program artist Bruna Esposito is opening on November 16 at Federico Luger (FL GALLERY), Milan.

The exhibition presents two sets of works, one of which is new. Fish eyes and bamboo brooms are featured in a paranoid and ironic installation.
Bruna Esposito “truly” surprises us by creating an underwater, enigmatic and silent universe.
Truly?! I’ve seen it with my own eyes….

Scopio, 2016, Lambda print, 145 x 185 cm unique edition.

The exhibition is on view through January 14, 2017.

More information can be found here