Exhibition
February 27–April 8, 2014

Maria Rapicavoli: A Cielo Aperto

A Cielo Aperto is a solo exhibition by ISCP artist-in-residence Maria Rapicavoli.

A Cielo Aperto, an Italian idiomatic expression that can be translated to “Open Sky” contextualizes Rapicavoli’s current and long-term artistic research while seeking to open, and therefore disclose, Sicily’s sky as a space occupied by military forces.

The exhibition pivots around a newly commissioned site-specific installation that juxtaposes a large-scale photograph of Sicily’s sky with a series of details from a disassembled military map that the artist acquired from a soldier. It will be accompanied by two sets of video works and photographs that investigate the economic and political ties between Sicily and the United States.

A free catalog will be published for the exhibition with a commissioned text by Soyoung Yoon, Assistant Professor of Visual Studies, Eugene Lang College, The New School and Joanne Cassullo Faculty Fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program. The exhibition is organized by Kari Conte, Director of Programs and Exhibitions with Shinnie Kim, Programs Manager.

Maria Rapicavoli lives and works in New York. She has recently completed the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) Residency Program and was a fellow in the Whitney Independent Study Program. She received her MA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College University, London in 2005 and her BA from the Academy of Fine Arts, Catania in 2001. She is the recipient of numerous grants and prizes including the NCTM e l’arte. She was nominated for the Talent Prize in Italy and she received the DEMO/Movin’UP grant in 2011.

Opening Reception: Feb 26, 2014, 7-9pm
Download Exhibition Catalog

Participating Residents

ISCP Talk
February 18, 2014

Salon: D-L Alvarez and Richard Loskot

D-L Alvarez will discuss his most recent project The Visitor Owl, a collaboration with writer Kevin Killian, a double-narrative film about teenage ruffians and failed educational systems. The film(s) reflect on two seminal Sidney Poitier movies, one set in the Bronx in 1955, the other in a suburb of London in 1967. Cast with the non-actors of Poets Theater, the work is full of camp, sweetly turned phrases, and thug poses.

Richard Loskot’s presentation focuses on his works The Point of ThingsAnother place and Simple thing, in which he tries to prove the following statement from Richard P. Feynman: “Our imagination is stretched to the utmost, not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things which are there.

Participating Residents

ISCP Talk
February 4, 2014

Public Art as Still Life: Heather Hart, Kiril Kuzmanov and Austin Thomas

This salon features artists Heather Hart, Kiril Kuzmanov, and AustinThomas in dialogue about their recent projects, which overlap on thesubject of art in the context of public marketplaces in Sofia,Bulgaria, East Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York, and elsewhere. Thesalon is organized and moderated by Sara Reisman.

Heather Hart questions how the memory of an experience is generated,giving the “viewer” some responsibility in the art “viewing” processand creating something that lasts longer than the interaction itself,starting a conversation that may continue outside of the art piece.Based in Brooklyn, NY, Heather Hart was an artist in residence atSkowhegan, RBPW, Santa Fe Art Institute, Fine Arts Work Center and atthe Whitney Independent Study Program. She has received grants fromJoan Mitchell Foundation, Harvestworks, Jerome Foundation and afellowship from NYFA. Her work has been featured in exhibitions atSocrates Sculpture Park, Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park,Studio Museum in Harlem, Art in General, Rush Arts Gallery, No LongerEmpty, Museum of Arts and Craft in Itami, Portland Art Center and theBrooklyn Museum. She studied at Cornish College of the Arts inSeattle, Princeton University in New Jersey and received her MFA fromMason Gross School of the arts at Rutgers University. Hart iscurrently a recipient of an LMCC Workspace.

Kiril Kuzmanov is interested in how ideas become objects and are expressed in a certain language, scale and media. Kiril Kuzmanov (born 1981) graduated with an MA in sculpture from the National Academy of Art, Sofia. Among his projects and works related to specific places are: Project 0, The Trap Quoter, Plovdiv; Who Controls the Controllers, Tiananmen Square, Beijing and Wild is the Wind, related to 11 countries in Asia. His solo exhibitions include: Exhale, Rayko Alexiev Gallery, Sofia and Feeder Head, Vaska Emanouilova Gallery, Sofia. He has participated in group exhibitions including: BAZA award, Sofia Art Gallery; Sofia Contemporary 2012; 5th International Biennale of Young Artists, Bucharest, 2012; Fragile, Atelier Tarwewijk Mijnsherenlaan, Rotterdam, 2012 and Art of Urban Intervention 2011, Institute of Contemporary Art, Sofia. Kuzmanov received various awards and grants, including KK Austria 2012 and the Young Visual Artists Award (BAZA) award of 2013.

Austin Thomas creates works that explore, alternatively, personal narratives and public actions: sketchbook diaries that explore the artist’s everyday experiences and hybrid sculptural/architectural objects created to facilitate thought and discussion. She also creates “perches”, site-specific sculptures that exist “somewhere between theoretical architecture, social psychology experiments, and an eccentric suburban backyard deck” that invite the viewer to play, climb, explore, or sit. Thomas is currently working on a permanent artwork called Plaza Perch for Humboldt Plaza, a new plaza that the Department of Transportation is building adjacent to the Moore Street Market in East Williamsburg. Recent solo shows include: Heiner Contemporary, Washington, DC, 2012, and Robert Lehman Art Center, North Andover, MA, 2013. Thomas is also the director and curator of Pocket Utopia on the Lower East Side.

Sara Reisman is the director of New York City’s Percent for Art program and an independent curator and sometimes writer.