"A Legacy of Making" at the Hunterdon Art Museum

On the terrace of the Hunterdon Art Museum overlooking the Raritan River: banner for "A Legacy of Making: 29 Contemporary Artists Inspired by Their Italilan Heritage at the Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, New Jersey, through January 10, 2027

The great wave of Italian immigration to this country took place from the late 1800s into the first half of the 1900s. Most of the arrivals were Southern Italians who set foot on Ellis Island with few belongings but with with the ingenuity, creativity, and will to make a new life. Using their skills in building and domestic arts, they created homes, businesses, and communities that flourished. This tradition of creativity and handwork continues in the studios of their children and grandchildren. Painters and sculptors, photographers and printmakers, book artists and textile artists, these descendants draw from the richness of Italian and Italian American culture, some producing art that speaks to tradition, others drawing from a legacy of making to create work their predecessors might recognize in technique but not in content. 

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This stone building, constructed in 1836, began life as a grist mill that served the farming community of Hunterdon County until 1950. It was transformed into an arts center and then a museum. Salvador Dali, Isamu Noguchi, and Hedda Sterne have shown here, and more recently Faith Ringgold and Alex Katz

 

 A Legacy of Making: 29 Contemporary Artists Inspired by Their Italian Heritage is the fifth exhibition in a series that has traveled with a changing lineup of art and artists: from the Calandra Italian American Institute in New York City in 2023-2024, to Connecticut College in New London in 2024, to two successive exhibitions at Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts, in 2024 and 2025, to the Hunterdon Art Museum, which will run from now into early 2027. So, five exhibitions in four states in three years.

As the curator of the exhibition, I'd like to take you on a walk-through.

Approaching the entrance, we come to a sculpture by Don Porcaro, which you can view below.  Of working in stone, Porcare says, "From the first time I cut a piece of stone, I knew that it felt right. I fed a driving need to work with a material that speaks to tradition, and I knew that that tradition belonged to my culture."

Don Porcaro, Talisman #4, 2013, limestone, marble, brass; courtesy of Westwood Gallery, New York City

 Porcaro's Talisman #4 as viewer from the lobby, with a photograph by Brian Alterio

Above and below: Alterio's Garlic Scapes, 2012, an image that connects culturally and horticulturally
to one of the most notable elements of Italian cuisine; artist photo below

Now we climb the great wooden staircase to the main galleries on the second floor where A Legacy of Making:
29 Contemporary Artists Inspired by Their Italian Heritage is installed. It is the fifth exhibition in a series that has
traveled with a changing lineup of art and artists: from the Calandra Italian American Institute in New York City
in 2023-2024, to Connecticut College in New London in 2024, to two successive exhibitions at Regis College in
Weston, Massachusetts, in 2024 and 2025, to the Hunterdon Art Museum. The exhibition here will run from now
into early 2027. So, five exhibitions in four states in three years. 

We start by considering the journey over, with a work by B. Amore, who enshrines the memory of her maternal grandmother, Concettina. "We carry the history of our families and our cultures in our psyches as well as our genes," says Amore.

Above: B. Amore's Following the Thread IV, Concettina De Iorio, 1999, mixed media assemblage; artist photo

Below: The journey over as expressed in the work of Angelica Bergamini, right, who was born In Italy and is a
dual citizen, and Luci-Callipari, a first-generation Italian Australian

Angelica Bergamini, Solo Journey, 2022, mixed media on paper; artist photo

View of the same wall from the opposite direction

Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, From the Inside, 2020, digital print from a mixed-media collage; artist photo

While most of the artists in A Legacy of Making are Italian American, several of the artists are immigrants themselves or children of the diaspora. All of them synthesize Italian or immigrant culture with their experience as trained artists working in a contemporary art world.

Callipari-Marcuzzo's parents emigrated east from Calabria to Australia, a trip undertaken by many paesani/e from Southern Italy. The location may be different, but the immigrant culture is familiar.

Now we walk back past Amore's work at the top of the stairs to encounter several works by Diana Gonzalez Gandolfi. Born in Buenos Aires to a family that maintained Italian traditions (her great grandfather, Gaetano Gandolfi, fought side by side with Garibaldi in Italy's War of Independence), we see a story told visually of heritage from one country to another.

Above: Gonzalez Gandolfi's Mapped Waters (Traced Homeland Series), 2021, mixed media on gampi paper; artist photo

Below: Now We Know Where We Are: 2008 Buenos Aires (Navigated Territories Series), 20178, pigmented wax and oil over encaustic monotype on panel, diptych

 

On the wall beyond the work of Gonzalez Gandolfi are three works by Gianluca Bianchino, who came to this country from Avellino when he was a boy. Unlike immigrants of earlier generations who traveled by steamship, Bianchino flew overand has made numerous trips back and forth. The views of earth from above have made a lasting imprint on his work.

Gianluca Bianchino, left to right: Geography: Past Peak, Geography: Delineation, and Geography: Oblique State of Affairs; all acrylic, enamel, pigment, and others materials on wood, plaster, or aluminum;
photo: Denise Sfraga

Now we begin a clockwise tour of the main gallery. Many of us were the beneficiaries of a textile heritage, which was passed down from grandmothers, mothers, and aunts--although it has manifested in ways these women might not recognize.

Patricia Miranda, Lamentation for a Reasoned History, 2023, donated, hand-dyed lace, thread, dressmaker's pins, paper clay, cast plaster

Detail below

Foreground: Jennifer Cecere, Doily, 2010, printed and laser-cut industrial screening. You can get a sense of its size in the panorama below. As you scroll, you will see additional views of the work

Panorama: Gianluca Bianchino, Jennifer Cecere, Lorenza Sannai, Antonietta Grassi; foreground: Claudia DeMonte, John Avelluto

     

John Avelluto,  Impasta Impasto, 2023, sculpted acrylic paint on panel

Below: a detail; both artist photos

Avelluto plays with the tropes of Italian and Italian American culture. His takes on food--all rendered in acrylic paint--and everyday expressions remind us how much a part of Italian culture we carry with us, no matter how Americanized we may be. The gesture of the fingers brought together with the thumb, repeated so many times in the painting shown here, is la mano a borsa, or hand purse. Who needs words when you can use this gesture to register everything from, "What do you mean" to "But why" to "WTF!"

Claudia DeMonte, Il Corno, 2013, pewter and gold leaf on wood

The corno, or horn, is meant to to ward off the mal'occhio, or Evil Eye, a curse leveled at you by someone who is angry with you or jealous of what you have. Tribal beliefs hold strong in Southern Italy, even now, but even if you're not a believer, why tempt fate?

In the distance, a view of Cecere's Doily

Through a view of Jennifer Cecere's Doily we continue our tour of the gallery

Lorenza Sannai and Antonietta Grassi

Lorenza Sannai, Multiply (2), 2022, acrylic and embroidery on canvas; photo: Denise Sfraga

An Italian who maintains a seasonal studio north of New York City, Sannai literally stitches 

together art and craft, embellishing her painted geometric abstractions with areas of embroidery

Antonietta Grassi, Soft Edge (After Agnes), 2025, acrylic, ink, oil on linen

Grassi, who lives and works in Montreal with the occasional New York City residency, flips the 

script with a paintings specifically intended to resemble a weaving. Together with the work of 

Lorenza Sannai, we are reminded that the distinctions between art and craft are no longer relevant 

in the hands of contemporary artists; indeed, both genres are enriched by the combination

Sannai and Grassi behind the clay sculptures of Elisa D'Arrigo

Below, another view of the sculptures, with Chris Costan collage on the wall

Elisa D'Arrigo, Going Gray, 2025, hand-built and glazed ceramic; artist photo

Perhaps it is a coincidence, but D'Arrigo's Sicilian grandfather was a shoemaker. Then again, DNA asserts itself in surprising ways 

Chris Costan, Watermelon Sugar, 2016, textile and mixed media; artist photo; collection of Karen Schifano.  Costan's work in the fashion industry gave her access to the materials of her art. We'll come to another image shortly

Stepping back, we see the work of Grassi, D'Arrigo, and Costan in the distance

At right and below, Len Bellinger, bignet, 2015-2018, oil, acrylic, etching ink, staples on canvas;  photo below: Denise Sfraga

Below: Another view of Bellinger's bignet, with a view of the building's impressive wooden staircase and the massive beams needed to hold heavy machinery in its previous life as a grain mill. We are about one-third of the way around the main gallery

Contining around: After the vertical beam we see two more textile collages by Chris Costan, and two paintings by Lucio Pozzi; foreground, Laura Moriarty sculptures

Chris Costan, Glow Worm, 2016, textile pieces and mixed media on paper

Work by Laura Moriarty (maternal family: Roccio/Policella) orients you to our path around the gallery. We are now in the section opposite the stairs we climbed. 

On wall, Moriarty's Wind on Water, 2025, encaustic on paper

Above and below: sculptures in foreground (and below) from left: Daddy Flint, Momma Flint, Baby Flint, all 2025, encaustic. The Flint "family" reminds us of the strong bonds in Italian families, even if so many artists have ventured into the larger world to make their careers

With Moriarty's work to orient you, we continue around the gallery. On the wall from left: Costan, Lucio Pozzi, Timothy McDowell; sculpture, D. Dominick Lombardi

Turning to the right, D. Dominick Lombardi sculpture on pedestal with a glimpse of Wayne Montecalvo's Sophia on the far wall.

D. Dominick Lombardi, Vessel Assemblage #3, 1994, carved found wood, childhood painting, found ceramic fragment, metal, toy gun (hidden) on artist-constructed pedestal; against the wall, CCWS-26, 2018, reinforced papier-mâché with gesso and acrylic medium, wood, acrylic, faux painting

Above and below: A look back from our position in front of Lombardi's sculptures
(Personal note: I love the way this section of the gallery, with light on three sides, accommodates and illuminates the sculpture)

Left: D. Dominick Lombardi, Il Pagliaccio, 1990, carved found wood and bowling pin, found traffic sign, metal elements

Orienting you as we continue around the gallery. Foreground: another view of Lombardi's Vessel Assemblage #3, with, from left: two paintings by Lucio Pozzi, two sculptures by Thomas Micchelli, painting by Timothy DcDowell

Lucio Pozzi, Climbing, 2017, oil on canvas, and In a Chalice of Aleppo Glass (Rumi), 2019, oil on canvas. These two paintings are from the artist's Rag Rug series; artist photos

Thomas Micchelli sculptures:  Head 2:24 and Head 1:24, both 2024, Winterstone

Michelli's powerful heads draw from an Italian sculptural tradition, albeit with contemporary sculptural materials (Winterstone is a powder that transforms into a clay-like medium when mixed with water and dries to a hard stone finish). Says the artist, "The compact volumes, structural solidity, and primacy of line that undergird the art of Michelangelo, Masaccio, Pontormo and Morandi--to pluck a handful of names out of dozens--are the elusive touchstones of my practice."

Micchelli's Head 1:24,  here and below, with Timothy McDowell painting

Timothy McDowell (Macellari), Spaghetti Western, 2024, oil on panel; photo: Denise Sfraga

A consummate figurative painter, McDowell here juggles Italian tropes: the plate of spaghetti, the American cowboy (shot with bullet holes?) and his horse, the canned tomatoes with its play on words suggesting how immigrants, distrustful of financial institutions, saved their money--not in a bank but under the mattress or in tomato cans

This is the third corner of the gallery
Work by Thomas Micchelli, Timothy McDowell, and Wayne Montecalvo

Wayne Montecalvo, Sophia, 2024, mixed media; artist photo

This image of Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Sciolona, known to the world as Sophia Loren, in her heyday, appears to be part of an artifact wall, replete with ethnic icons and decorative tiles. But look closer. These "artifacts" are thoroughly modern--digital images mounted on styrofoam with a mix of materials like cardboard and wax

Above: Stepping back to see more of the right flank of the gallery

Below: turning to take in more of the installation

Cultivation and foraging were a big part of the immigrant experience. Backyard tomatoes and nonna digging up chicoria from the fields provided sustenance when the cupboard was otherwise bare. Even if we do not maintain a backyard garden, plants take form in the studio as art

Denise Sfraga, Petrichor, 2024, flashe, acrylic, oil pastel, photograph on wood panel; artist photo

Margaret Lanzetta, Forever Flaneur, 2020, oil, enamel, acrylic, canvas cutouts, and mixed media on canvas; artist photo

Foreground: John Monti, Tipped, urethane resin, pigments, dimensions variable; background: Patti Russotti mixed media photographs

The graceful arabesques of the work of these two artists are inspired by different sources. Russotti finds her inspiration in the ferns and funghi she finds in her yard. Monti looks to the church. He calls himself a "cultural Catholic," drawing inspiration from ornamentation rather than religion. This floor installation of lily-like forms, Tipped, may suggest to you, as it does to me, the poetic denouement of a garden at the ends of the season--which is just about now

Patti Russotti, Metteuccia struthiopteris, 2023, film transfers on Kitikata paper, wax, and stitching sewn to multiple layers of Kozo paper

Panorama of the nature section of the exhibition, and with it our tour of the main gallery is complete

Now we make our way into the intimate River Gallery, which is bathed in light  from the Raritan River and with the reflection of a white ceiling rather than wooden beams. The work in this gallery embodies conversations, some physical, others conceptual through time.

Panorama with Luci Callipari-Marcuzzi framed embroideries, left, and an installation wall by Serena Bocchino

Bocchino's painting, Squeeze, 2020, enamel paint with collage elements on prepared raw canvas. The hanging panels, which the artist calls "veils"--Veil #3: Alive and Veil #1: Alive in the River--are a conceptual colloquy with her Roman nonna whose handwork inspired the artist. Both Veils are 2020, enamel on silk/polyester fabric

In the vitrines: books by Karen Guancione, with Bocchino's Squeeze and Veils on the far wall

Above and below

 In the vitrines are Karen Guancione's editioned books, including il mare, 2005, left (edition of 43), and the art of labor, 2003 (edition of 40), the thread and pins referring to the handwork and piecework that were so much a part of immigrant labor. The books were printed on Hannemuhle paper, incorporating a variety of additonal materials and texts. They were printed and published by Edizioni Pulcinoelefante in Osnago, Lecce, Italy

Karen Guancione, Fait a Nice, France (July-August 2020), 2010, one-of-a-kind book with acrylic paint, found tile, bandages, pins, fabric

Looking through the vitrine to Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo's embroideries

A closer view, below: Eredità  (Inheritance) and Vita (Life), each a stitched conversation between Callipari-Marcuzzo and her mother, Anna Callipari. Visible in foreground, Vita was embroidered as a linen doily by Anna in 1960; the artist embroidered "Vita"-- thus the title--in 2018

Closer view of Eredità, embroidered as a doily by Anna Callipari in 1960; the artist embroidered "Eredità"-- thus the title--in 2018

Says Callipari-Marcuzzo: "The threads, my own and my mother's, link us to Calabria and North West Victoria. The work forms a dialog between us, reinstating the chain of tradition passed down from mother to daughter."

Above and below

Karen Guancione installation with Gli Occhi di Santa Lucia (The Eyes of Saint Lucy) available for viewing. Conversation takes many forms, and here it is the kinesthetic experience of a reader in communion with the words of a book.

Gli Occhi di Santa Lucia, 2007, was letterpress printed in an edition of 43 on Hannemuhle paper, with a variety of additional materials, by Edizioni Pulcinoelefante, Osnago, Italy. The book is placed on linen fabric handwoven in Italy by the artist's grandmother

View through the vitrines to Milisa Galazzi's Text Lace, 2010, an installation of eight embroidered linen handkerchiefs, embroidery hoops, embroidery on waxed fabric

The adult artists recalls in stitches a conversation with her father's mother, who taught her to sew. 
Galazzi: "Hi, grammy"

Grammy: Are you doing any handwork?"

Galazzi: "Not this week"

Grammy: "Because a lady always mends and fixes"
Galazzi: "Really?" and "But why?"
Grammy: "Because good girls should always be sewing"

Galazzi: "UGH"

Galazzi gets the last word in this conversation, but Grammy prevailed. Much of Galazzi's work as a mature artist involves sewing

Below: "Because a lady always mends and fixes"

With Galazzi's work here, we come to the end of the walk through

Visible in the distance: Margaret Lanzetta's, Forever Flaneur

At a time when ethnicity and cultural legacy are topics of discussion in both the art world and society at large, A Legacy of Making contributes to the conversation with visual art and narratives that express the Italian immigrant experience as filtered through contemporary American lives.

The 29 artists participating in A Legacy of Making are Brian Alterio, 
B. Amore, John Avelluto, Len Bellinger, Angelica Bergamini, Gianluca Bianchino, Serena Bocchino, Luci Callipari-Marcuzzo, Jennifer Cecere, Chris Costan, Elisa D’Arrigo, Claudia DeMonte, Milisa Galazzi, Diana González Gandolfi, Antonietta Grassi, Karen Guancione, Margaret Lanzetta, D. Dominick Lombardi, Timothy McDowell, Thomas Micchelli, Patricia Miranda, Wayne Montecalvo, John Monti, Laura Moriarty, Don Porcaro, Lucio Pozzi, Patti Russotti, Lorenza Sannai, and Denise Sfraga.

The exhibition includes some 67 artworks--paintings, sculptures, prints, books, textiles--whose common thread is a connection to our italianità, the sense of who we are based on our Italian experiences and traditions. While most of the artists are Italian American--the children or grandchildren of Italians and Sicilians who made the trip over at a time when steamship travel was slow and grueling, especially below deck in Steerage--several of the artists are immigrants themselves or children of the diaspora. All  synthesize Italian or immigrant culture with their experience as trained artists working in a contemporary art world.

Special thanks to Jeanne Brasile, Director of the museum, for the invitation to bring A Legacy of Making to her institution; to Donna Kessinger, Director of Exhibitions, who managed the logistics as I planned this exhibition from 300 miles away; to volunteer Kelly Scott, who helped in myriad ways; to David Scott and Raleigh Ceasar Jr. who installed the show and whose technical and aesthetic suggestions transformed my crude schematic into the elegant design you see here.

Another note: Dozens of artists, mostly from the New York City area and New England, have been included in this project. To view the previous exhibitions, click on the pics on the sidebar or here

To view pages of Italianita, the book that inspired the exhibition, click here

To view the website that inspired the project, click here

All installation photos by me except those by Denise Sfraga where noted. Some images of individual artworks were provided by the respective artists