Spring 2022 exhibtiions

Cathy Josefowitz, The Thinking Body
Organized with Elise Lammer
March 16–June 19, 2022
ARRHYTHMICS

Lee Scratch Perry, THE ORBZERVER
With works by Rashiyah Elanga, Invernomuto, Ishion Hutchinson, Rammellzee, Zadie Xa
March 16–June 19, 2022
POLYPHONY

Riccardo Benassi, Lorenza Longhi, Eleonora Luccarini
March 16, 2022
RETROFUTURE

Ciao!

I’m happy to introduce my first exhibitions for spring 2022, opening on March 16.

The Thinking Body (March 16–June 19, 2022) is the most comprehensive exhibition, to this day, on the life and work of Cathy Josefowitz (1956–2014). Organized with Elise Lammer, in collaboration with Kunsthaus Langenthal and the Centre culturel suisse in Paris, the show in Rome is the last chapter of a project with common threads and local focuses. By bringing together the entire range of Josefowitz’s artistic output, in which paintings and drawings dialogue and overlap with choreography, the exhibition reflects the artist’s effort to reconcile media which have too often been treated as disparate in art historical discourse. The body—in motion and in relation to other bodies—constitutes the core of her oeuvre, most of which has never been exhibited. The exhibition in Rome adopts a largely thematic approach, illustrating the artist’s early experimentations inspired by European art and artists from the first half of the twentieth century. Her progressive shift towards exploring her own body and those of the people she loved culminated in her focus on the relationship between the body and space, leading her ultimately towards abstraction. The show features a series of drawings on hotel and restaurant receipts, made while the artist was living in Italy in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which are shown for the first time in this chapter of the exhibition. 

THE ORBZERVER (March 16–June 19, 2022) is the first institutional show dedicated to Jamaican musician, visual artist and “Upsetter” Lee Scratch Perry (1936–2021) since his death. One of the utmost pioneers of Reggae and Dub music, producer of some of Bob Marley’s most renowned songs, Perry is a timeless figure of political and cultural resistance that cannot be relegated or confined to a specific creative field. The show presents twelve works by the artist, in dialogue with contributions, which will enter the show progressively, from a group of multi-disciplinary creative figures, who differ in terms of geography and generation, but who together make explicit the complexity of the Jamaican artist’s influence. Jamaican poet, Ishion Hutchinson, and the Italian artistic duo, Invernomuto, contribute works that act as a homage to Perry’s ongoing legacy. A sculpture by cult American artist, musician, underground graffiti writer and Afrofuturist icon Rammellzee (1960–2010) brings us the street art scene of the 1980s in New York City, while the works of two emerging artists, Rashiyah Elanga (1997) and Zadie Xa (1983), suggest two very different ways of constructing alternative realities made up of worldly, pop and spiritual elements.

Riccardo Benassi (1982), Lorenza Longhi (1991) and Eleonora Luccarini (1993) are the latest artists to enter my RETROFUTURE section, a growing exhibition aimed at creating a collection on a new generation of Italian artists. On March 16 the works of Benassi, Longhi and Luccarini will join those of Federica Antonini, Ruth Beraha, Carola Bonfili, Costanza Candeloro, Ludovica Carbotta, Alessandro Cicoria, Gianluca Concialdi, Giulia Crispiani, Giorgio Di Noto, Irene Fenara, Giorgia Garzilli, Beatrice Marchi, Diego Marcon, Margherita Raso, Parasite 2.0, Francesco Pedraglio, Real Madrid, SAGG NAPOLI and Davide Stucchi.

My spring programme will continue on April 14 with the opening of Cinzia says..., the first major retrospective on artist and fashion designer Cinzia Ruggeri (1942-2019), another unconventional figure who moved with absolute freedom across various disciplines. More soon...

Please visit my website for updates, extra content, and to explore my current exhibitions.

I’m waiting for you!