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.