"A Legacy of Making" at Connecticut College, New London

Interior entrance to A Legacy of Making: 26 Contemporary Artists Inspired by Their Italian Heritage

A Legacy of Making has legs! The exhibition that took place at the Calandra Institute in New York City has greatly expanded and moved to Connecticut College in New London. In the translation it lost one curator (the estimable Joseph Sciorra) and added five more artists. I flew solo for this effort. With an enormous two-level, three-gallery space, I have been able to show more and larger work by each artist. It's up through October 19.

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With its mix of narrative and abstract painting, installation, textile, and sculpture, A Legacy of Making: 26 Contemporary Artists Inspired by Their Italian Heritage might have you wondering, “What exactly is the common aesthetic thread here?” If you are from a big family, you understand that like any gathering with the relatives, an exhibition such as this brings an entire famiglia to the table, each with different ideas and ways of expressing them. Drawing from all of Italian culture and tradition, we continue the legacy in our studios, reinventing it as American art.

The 26 artists in the show are: B. Amore, John Avelluto, the late Nancy Azara, Angelica Bergamini, Gianluca Bianchino, Jennifer Cecere, Chris Costan, Elisa D’Arrigo, Claudia DeMonte, Paul Fabozzi, Milisa Galazzi, Diana González Gandolfi, D. Dominick Lombardi, Lloyd Martin (Maccarone), Joanne Mattera, Timothy McDowell (Macellari), Patricia Miranda, John Monti, Laura Moriarty (Roccio/Policella), Carolanna Parlato, Anna Patalano, Don Porcaro, Mary Schiliro, Karen Schifano, Denise Sfraga, and Lisa Zukowski. 
Scroll to the end for hours, directions, and information on two public receptions.

Entrance to the exhibition from the campus green. This ground-level space, entered both from here and from an interior staircase (opening image), extends to a skylighted upper level, the Atrium Gallery.  Each level is partially visible from the other, affording you a dramatic view of the installation. Additionally, a small gallery off this main space holds an installation by Gianluca Bianchino.

Here, work by John Avelluto, left and center; Lloyd Martin, and  Carolanna Parlato

John Avelluto

Fresco Flex, 2023, acrylic on panel, 12 x 9 inches

Impasta Impasto, 2023, sculpted acrylic paint on panel

Detail

"I grew up in food. There were Sunday dinners at 3:00 in the afternoon downstairs at my maternal grandparents. My father worked at Il Cortile in Little Italy and then had his own restaurant in Port Chester. I worked there as a waiter to earn enough for grad school. Then I opened a small 20-person wine bar in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, which I had for nine years."

Abstraction may not seem initially to be "Italian" or "Italian American," but the artists are informed by their culture, and sometimes there is a direct connection, whether architecture or nature, handwork, food, or the legacy of making things and making do

From left: Paul Fabozzi, Lloyd Martin, Carolanna Parlato

Paul Fabozzi

Above: CL (Rome, Ivo #2), 2018, oil on canvas, 48 x 32 inches
Below: Corviale #1, 2012, colored pencil and ink on Mylar mounted on paper, 35 x 27 inches framed

"Fueled by my decades-long engagement with Italy, my approach to painting and drawing has made me feel more deeply the extent to which spatial experience is the basis of perception." 

Lloyd Martin

Large Carbon Riff, 2019, oil on canvas, 68 x 92 inches

"Much of what I am today I credit to my grandmother, Filomena Maccarone."

Don Porcaro, Carolanna Parlato

Carolanna Parlato

Juggler 

Swipe Up, both 2022, acrylic on canvas, 42 x 36 inches

"My grandparents from both sides of the family brought Italy into my life."

 

Don Porcaro

Everybody Knows #29, 2023, marble, 13 x 14 x 7.5 inches on pedestal, 30 x 16 x 11 inches

"One of my earliest memories is of visiting my mother's uncle . .  who opened a stone yard in Connecticut. Seeing all the stones, mostly monuments and gravestones, stacked up made a deep impression on me. . .
I can say that from the first time I cut a piece of stone, I knew that it felt right. It fed a driving need to work with a material that speaks to tradition, and I new that that tradition belonged to my culture."

Anna Patalano

Top: Demolished D, 2022, oil on linen panel, 18 x 18 inches

Bottom: Clashing Cs, 2022, oil on linen, 30 x 30 inches

"Perhaps because I was conceived in one country and born in another, I have always felt that I exist in a transitional limbo. The clashing of two sets of different value systems was, and still is, under constant negotiation. It's probably why I needed to make art early on. It became the only language I understand with which to express that negotiation."

Below: Closer view of Demolished D

Entrance to the gallery from inside the building

From left: Work by Claudia DeMonte, B. Amore; on far wall: Diana Gonzalez Gandolfi

B. Amore

Following the Thread IV: Concettina De Iorio, 1999; copper, wood, photo, fabric, thread, 24 x 48 x 3 inches

"We carry the history of out families and our cultures in our psyches as well as our genes."

Claudia DeMonte

Il Corno, 2013, pewter and gold leaf on wood, 14 x 3 x 3 inches

"It would be hard to be raised Italian American and not be influenced by the richness of Italian culture."

Diana Gonzalez Gandolfi

Above: Mapped Waters (Traced Homeland Series), 2021, mixed media on paper, app. 20 x 14 inches

Below: Forgotten and Now Remembered: 1985 Argentina, 2014, encaustic collagraph, pigmented wax, and pigment stick on panel; diptych, 40 x 60 inches

Now We Know Where We Are: 2008 Buenos Aires (Memory Terrain Series), 2017, encaustic monotype, pigmented wax, and oil on panel; diptych, 12 x 18 inches

"Growing up between continents and cultures has given me a sense of identity caught between worlds . . . I focus on themes connected to place, dislocation, exile, identity, and memory, These are some of the same issues my bisnonno experienced when he left Italy."

Claudie De Monte, foreground, with Diana Gonzalez Gandolfi, left, and Timothy McDowell

Timothy McDowell

La Befana, left, and Spaghetti Western, both 2024, oil on panel, 48 x 48 inches

"What links me to my Italian roots is a sense of familiarity with certain places. My grandfather, Francesco, is buried in the mountains northeast of Genoa near the house where he as prior generations of family were born going back hundreds of years."

Installation view: Laura Moriarty, foreground; clockwise around: Diana Gonzalez Gandolfi, Timothy McDowell, Nancy Azara

Below: McDowell, Azara, Schifano, with Moriarty sculpture in foreground

Laura Moriarty

Clockwise up from bottom: Hammerstone 3, Hammerstone 2, Hammerstone 5, Hammerstone 4, Hammerstone 1; all 2024, wax, various dimensions under 12 inches

"My grandmother, Anna Policella, taught me things about grace that are so deeply instinctive I cannot even put them into words, but I know her influence is indelible."

Installation view: Nancy Azara, Karen Schifano

Nancy Azara

From the Greve Series, 2015: Central Leaves with Blue, Seven Central Leaves with Blue,  and Red Hand with Four Panels, all mixed media on Mylar

"I can tell you that I feel a creative bond to Italy, its countryside, its people, and its art. After all, my ancestors lived there for thousands of years, and I feel this history still within myself."

This exhibition is dedicated to Nancy Azara, who died on June 27, shortly after we selected this work. Ave atque vale, dear friend 

Karen Schifano

Top: Hard Won, 2022

Below: Night Visitors, 2023; both flashe on canvas, 28 x 36 inches

"My paintings employs shapes that read as figure and ground, and sometimes windows, doorways, theater spaces (Italian opera!). They are imbued with an emotional narrative from my own life and times as I try to push abstraction into new territory."

Orienting you from the second level

Clockwise: Diana Gonzalez Gandolfi, Timothy McDowell, Nancy Azara on standing panel, Karen Schifano, Paul Fabozzi; sculpture: Laura Moriarty, Don Porcaro

Looking toward the campus entrance

John Monti on standing panel and back wall; Denise Sfraga; Don Porcaro and Laura Moriarty sculpture

Looking into the center of the gallery
Foreground: Laura Moriarty, Don Porcaro; on wall: Lloyd Martin, Carolanna Parlato, Anna Patalano; right: John Monti

Looking from the back of Don Porcaro sculpture toward the opposite wall with a grouping of framed work on paper by Angelica Bergamini

Angelica Bergamini

Long horizontal work: Solo Journey 2, monotype and paper sculpture on paper, 14 x 29 inches

"I have been thinking about how water connects my two lands: Italy, site of my origins, and New York City, where I have chosen to live." 

Below I Will Meet You There #11, 2021, monotype and collage on paper

Installation view: Laura Moriarty, foreground; John Monti sculpture and oval painting;  a glimpse of Denise Sfraga paintings

John Monti

Detail of Black Frost, 2021, urethane resin, pigments, glitter, 40 c 19 x 14 inches

Below: Big Vine, 2021, reclaimed foam, eco resin, urethane resin, Kandy pigments, glitter, 38 x 29 x 3 inches

"Although I am not practicing, I consider myself a cultural Catholic. I love the function of ornament, the embellishments, the reliquaries, the rituals, and the organized design principles."

Installation view: John Monti, Denise Sfraga

Denise Sfraga

"My grandfather lived a few blocks away from Green-Wood Cemetery, The Italian Catholic beliefs about death and rebirth have always resonated with me, and in some subliminal way my work has attempted to explore this duality."

Sick Sweet 1, 2024, colored pencil on paper mounted on wood panel, 14 x 11 inches

Gohone, 2023, flashe, acrylic, watercolor, photograph on paper mounted on wood panel, 24 x 18 inches

Petrichor, 2024, flashe, acrylic, oil pastel, photograph on wood panel, 48 x 36 inches

View up one level to the Atrium Gallery

Nancy Azara on lower level; Patricia Miranda above

Installation view in the Atrium Gallery

From left: Patricia Miranda; far end (barely visible; installation shot coming): three by Mary Schiliro; back wall: Elisa D'Arrigo, Lisa Zukowski; right wall: Jennifer Cecere, Milisa Galazzi

Elisa D'Arrigo

On wall: Reconstructed 1, 2008, handmade paper, cloth, pigments, thread, actulic medium, 15 x 11 x 5 inches and Reconstructed 5, 2009, handmade paper, thread, acrylic paint, marble dust, 18 x 8 x 8 inches; on pedestal, On a Limb, 2017, hand built and glazed ceramic, 6 x 12 x 8.5 inches

"Growing up first-generation Sicilian-Italian American, there was a pervasive do-it-yourself ethos, but also an express-yourself atmosphere, Everyone made things, repaired things, jerry-rigged things. That had a powerful effect on my sensibility and it is with me still."

Below: Closer view of On a Limb

Continuing around the Atrium Gallery: Lisa Zukowski, Jennifer Cecere

Lisa Zukowski

On wall: Sotto Bosco, 2022, oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches

Sculptures, identified below, all 2018, terra cotta, encaustic, string

"The heritage of being blue-collar working class created a condition of secrecy that offered protection from the world outside the family. This has manifested strongly in my art. I almost always hide things in my work: secret meanings, hidden objects . . . they are wrapped up in string as a kind of safekeeping." 

Things Fall Apart , 12 x 9.5 x 8 inches

Things Fall Apart II, 7 x 7.5 x 6 inches

Things Fall Apart VI, 7.5 x 7 x 6 inches

Jennifer Cecere

Rose Window, 36 inches diameter; Green Rose, 24 inches diameter; Red Star, 36 inches diameter; all 2011, acrylic on ripstop nylon

Below: closer view of Rose Window

Milisa Galazzi

A conversation in thread between the artist and her grandmother about the value of sewing; all 2010, thread and encaustic on linen handkerchief with embroidery hoop. The artist is in white thread; Grammy in black

"I found her comments annoying, yet I appreciated learning the sewing skills."

hi, grammy

r u doing any handwork, dear?

b/c good girls should always be sewing

b/c a lady always mends and fixes

UGH

Installation view: Milisa Galazzi, Chris Costan

Chris Costan

Glow Worm, 2016, fabrics and sewing notions on paper 

Below: I Believe 4, 2023, textile pieces and mixed media on paper, both 17 x 21.5 inches framed

"My birth certificate liste me as Costantino, but when I was 5 years old and beginning public school, my mother shortened the name. She felt it would be easier for me if my origins were not clear. The extended family was disappointed. Once I reached graduate school, I thought about changing it back but felt it was too late. I suppose this is called assimilation."

Installation view: D. Dominick Lombardi

 D. Dominick Lombardi

CCWS-53, 2020, mixed media, 18.25 x 25 x 5.25 inches

CCWS-25, 2018, mixed media, 21 x 14 x 12 inches; CCWS 53; CCWS 26, mixed media, 22 x 12 x 12 inches

"Like his father, my father was also a master carpenter with tremendous skills. Both taught me the correct way to use a variety of tools . . . skills that are at the core of my sculptural practice to this day. In addition, my grandfather's and father's obsession with salvaging materials made a great impression on me."

Installation view: D. Dominick Lombardi, Joanne Mattera

Joanne Mattera
From left: Silk Road 201, Silk Road 207, Silk Road 205, all 2014, encaustic on panel, 18 x 18 inches

"My maternal  bisnonne in Italy wove household linens on looms in their homes. My maternal grandfather, who immigrated here, was a tailor, and his daughter, Lena, was a dressmaker. Lena and her sister Antonette, my beloved aunts, taught me to sew, embroider, knit, and crochet. I learned to weave on my own. I make color field paintings that have an unmistakable visual relationship to fabric. It's in my DNA."

Below: Closer view of Silk Road 2014

Installation view: Chris Costan, Patricia Miranda

Chris Costan
Watermelon Sugar, 2016, textile and mixed media, inframed view: 6 x 20 inches

Patricia Miranda

Lamentation for a Reasoned History, 2022, donated vintage lace,  hand dyed with cochineal, ex-votos in plaster and paper clay, thread 

"The immigrant experience for us, the descendants, holds commonalities shared by many. The homeland is a complex mix of familiarity and strangeness, of longing and connection, and of loss. The art, the land, the buildings, the bells of Italy speak deeply to my artistic heart."

Detail view

Patricia Miranda, Mary Schiliro

Mary Schiliro

Slice, Punch, Dip 1, 2018, acrylic paint on paper, 12 x 8 inches, as are the following two

"I finally made it to Sicily. I had been dreaming of going for many years. I wanted to feel totally immersed in the culture and spent three weeks traveling there. I had a feeling of coming full circle, imagining my grandparents, what their life was like there, and how they made the decision to leave for America."

Above: Slice, Punch, Dip 2

Below: Slice, Punch, Dip 3 

Gianluca Bianchino

Installation: An Attempt to Communicate with Two Worlds at Once, 2024, video projectors, lights, light stands, tripods, photo umbrellas, electrical cord, acrylic paint

Above: the artist in the environment he created

Below:  Immerse yourself in the space

"My oldest memory is of a powerful earthquake that devastated my native province of Avellino in November 1980. I was 3 years old. My family and I lived close to the epicenter. We survived and shortly moved to Paterson, New Jersey. I was a spectator in the early part of this journey, which often kept our small family divided on separate continents for long periods. I struggled to find continuity in the process of relocating several times between Italy and here."

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Photos: Timothy McDowell, Joanne Mattera

Deepest gratitude to Marcia Wood for her invaluable assistance with the installation, and to Timothy McDowell, a fine arts professor at the college, who was instrumental in bringing the exhibition there and who worked with me on all aspects of exhibition preparation.

Directions and hours
Connecticut College is at 270 Mohegan Avenue, New London. Once you enter the campus, take a left at the gatehouse. You will pass The Cummings Art Center on your right; slightly ahead, take a left to park in the South lot. Walk back to the Art Center building. You will climb exterior stairs to the plaza, with the entrance straight ahead on your right. (The gatehouse is open 24/7 if you need directional assistance.)

Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00-5:00; Saturday and Sunday, 1:00-4:00.

 More info here