Ornaghi Prestinari

NEW YORK —Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, in collaboration with Magazzino Italian Art and Galleria Continua San Gimignano / Beijing / Les Moulins / Habana, is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of the artist duo Ornaghi & Prestinari, curated by Vittorio Calabrese.

Based in Milan, Valentina Ornaghi and Claudio Prestinari have worked together since 2009 and have exhibited their work throughout Italy and Europe. Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò will present a series of new works that will include both sculpture-installations and works on paper and on wood, attesting to the artists’ interest in materials and in new interdisciplinary methods of approach. Blending together pictorial and plastic figuration, reflections on key motifs from 20th century Italian modern art, conceptual art and personal experiences, Ornaghi and Prestinari raise questions about the importance of authorship and craft in a post-artisanal world. 

Their practice is centered on the dualities between thinking and acting, focusing particular attention to spontaneous and unpredictable intuitions. Ornaghi and Prestinari are interested in investigating the intimacy of domestic objects: it is under this premise that they transform everyday objects like a such as a “moka” espresso maker (Mattino, 2016) or a beer bottle (Chapeau, 2016) into alabaster sculptures, thus elevating familiar objects to a higher and new dimension. 

Ornaghi & Prestinari will be accompanied by a catalogue published by Magazzino Italian Art, which will be presented on November 2, on the occasion of a talk with the artists in the auditorium of NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò.

Valentina Ornaghi and Claudio Prestinari:

Valentina Ornaghi (b. 1986, Milan) and Claudio Prestinari (b. 1984, Milan) began their university education at the Polytechnic of Milan, graduating respectively in Industrial Design and Architecture. They both continued to study at the IUAV in Venice. Ornaghi and Prestinari have participated in various workshops and residencies, including Fondazione Spinola-Banna per l’arte (Turin, 2011) and VIR-Via Farini in Residence (Milan, 2013). In 2012, they won the “Regione Veneto prize” and received a grant from “Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa” (Venice). In 2014, Ornaghi and Prestinari had a solo exhibition “Familiare” at the Galleria Continua (San Gimignano), and in 2016 the “Estudio Carlos Garaicoa” invited them to “Artista X Artista”, the first international artist residency program in La Habana, Cuba. Ornaghi and Prestinari have taken part in several international exhibitions, both in experimental spaces and institutions, including Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, 2016; Aguila de Oro, Havana, 2016; Le Centquatre, Paris, 2015; Palazzo Reale, Milan, 2015; Museo Pietro Canonica of Villa Borghese, Rome, 2015; Biblioteca Ariostea, Ferrara, 2013; Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice, 2012; Zsolnay Cultural Quarter, Pécs, 2012; GMB - Centre for Contemporary Art, Bratislava, 2012; Hamburg Kunsthaus, Hamburg, 2012; KCCC -Klaïpeda Culture Communication Center, Klaïpeda, 2012; La Fabrique, Mountrouge, 2011; Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, 2009.

Magazzino Italian Art

Magazzino is a private warehouse art space in the Hudson Valley devoted to Postwar and Contemporary Italian art. Founded by Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu, Magazzino will feature a rationalist 20,000 square-foot structure dedicated to select works from the Olnick Spanu Collection. The new space will be under the direction of Vittorio Calabrese. Located along the Hudson River in Cold Spring, New York, Magazzino is slated to open in 2017, admission will be free and the space will be open by appointment only. 

Vittorio Calabrese, Director of Magazzino 

A native of Irpinia, Italy, Vittorio Calabrese is Director of Magazzino and oversees all its activities and cultural programs. Vittorio’s work for Magazzino includes managing all research, loans and acquisitions of the collection, as well as strategizing on Magazzino’s communication, marketing, branding, and liaising with neighboring art institutions and universities on programming. He specializes in the management of international and cultural institutions, art business practices, collection management, and appraising. Vittorio holds a BA and MSc in Business Administration and Management from Bocconi University, Milan, and an MA in History of Art and the Art Market from Christie’s Education New York. 

Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, New York University

Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, home of the Department of Italian Studies at New York University, was established thanks to a generous donation from the Baroness Mariuccia Zerilli-Marimò as a permanent and constructive homage to her husband, Guido Zerilli-Marimò. Casa Italiana was inaugurated in November 1990 with the mission to promote the deepening of knowledge of Italian civilization in the United States. Casa Italiana develops a rich and qualified program of extra-curricular cultural events ranging from Italian literature to political theory to figurative arts to the history of science. Begun by the first Director Professor Luigi Ballarini, the Casa began to collaborate with both public and private Italian centers and institutes that have the common objective of extending Americans’ understanding of Italian culture. In 1998, the direction of the Casa was passed to Professor Stefano Albertini whose leadership has allowed the Casa to become a privileged center for cultural discussion, making New York University one of the most important centers of European and international studies in the world.

Galleria Continua San Gimignano / Beijing / Les Moulins / Habana

Galleria Continua opened in San Gimignano (Italy) in 1990, as the result of the initiative of three friends: Mario Cristiani, Lorenzo Fiaschi and Maurizio Rigillo. Occupying a former cinema, Galleria Continua established itself and thrived in an entirely unexpected location, away from the big cities and the ultramodern urban centers, in a town - San Gimignano – steeped in history, timeless, magnificent. In 2004 Galleria Continua began a new adventure in Beijing, China, showing contemporary Western artists in an area where they are still little seen. Three years later, in 2007, Galleria Continua inaugurated a new peculiar site for large-scale creations - Les Moulins - in the Parisian countryside. In 2015 Galleria Continua embarks on new paths, opening a space in La Habana, Cuba, devoted to cultural projects designed to overcome every frontier.