Alessandro Piangiamore's First U.S. Exhibition

Curated by Vittorio Calabrese, director of Cold Spring’s Magazzino Italian Art, Marango will feature 14 pieces from Alessandro Piangiamore's Ieri Ikebana, La cera di Roma, Belvedere, and Primavera Piangiamore series, as well as a new site-specific work from the artist's Tutto il vento che c'è (All The Wind That Blows) open-ended project. 

Alessandro Pingiamore

MARANGO - Works by Alessandro Piangiamore - A video showcasing the exhibition at Casa Italiana

Sicilian born, Alessandro Piangiamore lives and works in Rome. In his work, the attempt to crystallize the ephemeral, the evanescent, is recurrent through a practical approach to the material that, as the artist claims, allows him to adhere to reality and an understanding of it. His practice always maintains an intimate and poetic dimension that often leaves the state of the final form to chance.

The exhibition’s title, Marango, comes from the Sicilian word for Amaranth, a color extract from a flower originating from South America, which characterized the textile production of ancient Mesoamerican cultures. Amaranth is one of the elements found in Piangiamore’s Ieri Ikebana’s compositions, symbolizing the relationship between materials, tradition, and nature, typical of the artist’s oeuvre.

On the occasion of Marango at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Piangiamore has decided to portray the Nor'eastern, a Hudson Valley wind. The monolith, made of local soil, is currently living at Magazzino Italian Art, Cold Spring. At Casa Italiana, a text description of the site-specific project will present the ongoing erosion happening at Magazzino.

 “In my research, I often try to crystallize everything which is ephemeral and fleeting through a practical approach to the matter, which allows me to cleave to reality and grasp it. Between the physical and the abstract, nature and the artificial, my research aims – rather than creating single objects – to make their inside shape and images emerge. Rather than being static or frontal, their features are accomplished through evocations and semantic and visual shifts. “ Piangiamore explains.

"We are always very busy," emphasizes Magazzino's founder Giorgio Spanu, "supporting and promoting Italian art. Not only the big names, but also the young artists. It is no coincidence that Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò will host from the first of May the exhibition of Alessandro Piangiamore in a wider project that will be constantly centered on the new voices of contemporary Italian art ".

Marango marks the third collaboration between Magazzino Italian Art and Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU following Burri-Posters in 2017 and Ornaghi & Prestinari in 2016.