Piero Gilardi Exhibit Comes To Magazzino Italian Art
An exploration of human and world, the Italian artist brings his dimensional, thought-provoking works to New York in May
Italian artist Piero Gilardi makes his solo U.S. debut next month, as Magazzino Italian Art in New York will be home to an expansive exhibit entitled Gilardi: Tappeto-Natura (Nature-Carpet). The show will be on view from May 7, 2022 through January 9, 2023 and celebrates Gilardi’s dialogue between art, life and culture, as he remains a true pioneer in the international artistic community.
At its core, Tappeto-Natura seeks to explore and shed light on environmental awareness. The series was born on a regular Sunday in 1965; Gilardi encountered a pile of rubbish while on a stroll in Northern Italy and was immediately inspired by his distaste. Tappeto-Natura depicts a reconstruction of unpolluted nature where human society is of no harm; a utopian picture of an idealized natural world.
An avid visitor of New York, Gilardi took kindly to exhibitions and museums, most specifically focused on post-minimalist work. His first show in the city, “Rotoli” (rolls) of Tappeto-Natura, was held at the Fischbach Gallery in September 1967. Though he lived in New York between 1967 and 1968 as he exhibited his works in galleries and underground spaces, the artist was, at heart, a traveler, bouncing between the United States, Italy, Germany, England, Holland and Northern Europe.
A subject of debate, he coined the term “Microemotive Art” in 1968, a concept of “a free, asymmetric vibration, which arises as the representative of that primary energy.” Both American and European artists adopt this style, as ‘Micro’ examines the very base and mystery of energy, while ‘Emotive’ rethinks subjectivity.
Curated by Elena Re, the exhibit is a multisensorial experience, Gilardi’s Nature-Carpets paint a rich and intricate vision of ecological landscape, using artificial materials like polyurethane foam and synthetic pigment alongside carving techniques to create rug-like works that meld art and technology.
“Of the guiding questions of today’s life, the relationship between the individual, technologies and nature is definitely the most pressing and recurrent. Nature and the future seem increasingly incompatible on this planet,” said the Ambassador of Italy to the United States, Mariangela Zappia, regarding the Tappeto-Natura exhibit. “In his artistic production, Piero Gilardi has consistently placed these two elements side by side as if to seek reconciliation between them.”
Tappeto-Natura is organized with the support of the Embassy of Italy in Washington D.C. You can learn more at magazzino.art.
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