{"id":26979,"date":"2024-10-02T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T12:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/?p=26979"},"modified":"2024-09-29T21:06:07","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T01:06:07","slug":"the-italian-diaspora-through-new-cummings-art-exhibit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/2024\/10\/02\/the-italian-diaspora-through-new-cummings-art-exhibit\/","title":{"rendered":"The Italian Diaspora Through New Cummings Art Exhibit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Courtesy of Amelia Racicot ’27<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Located on the first floor of Cummings, Don Porcaro\u2019s art gallery <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everybody Knows <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">speaks to the dual-identity of many Italian-Americans, and the recognition of one\u2019s Italian heritage through the medium of marble \u2014 a material of great historical and cultural significance in Italy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Porcaro illustrated it best in his artist\u2019s statement, a description of visiting Connecticut, seeing the rolling stone yards of monuments and gravestones, and nostalgic early childhood memories with family as a calling to his roots. \u201cFrom the first time I cut a piece of stone, I knew that it felt right. It fed a need to work with a material that speaks to tradition, and I knew that that tradition belonged to my culture,\u201d said Porcaro.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWith its mix of narrative and abstract painting, installation, textile, and sculpture, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Legacy of Making: 26 Contemporary Artists Inspired by Their Italian Heritage<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> brings an entire <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">famiglia <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to the table, each with different ideas and ways of expressing them,\u201d wrote curator Joanne Mattera in her statement on Cumming\u2019s latest art exhibit. \u201cDrawing from all of Italian culture and tradition, we continue the legacy in our studios, reinventing it as American art.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe all have something in our genes, in our DNA, that has come from our ancestors,\u201d reflected Professor Tim McDowell, who served as a curatorial aid. \u201cIf they’ve proven scientifically that trauma can be passed on to generations, why can’t creativity, ingenuity, music, [and] art be too?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The exhibit is based on Mattera\u2019s book, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Italianita: Contemporary Art Inspired by the Italian Immigrant Experience. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Published last year, her book explores the art of 60 Italian artists and the cultural aspects that connect them all, despite the inspection of a variety of artistic mediums, styles, and artists coming from a range of backgrounds. Her book, exhibition, and larger goals to shed light on the immigrant experience stem from her cultural connections to Italy and America, and more specifically the politics in both countries regarding immigration.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe have to stand up for immigrants. They come with the least amount of money and the least amount of power, and they’re working hard to create a new life. That started me thinking about the great gifts that I had received from my own immigrant family,\u201d said Mattera. \u201cI grew up in that culture of many languages, of wonderful food, of kind people, and I knew a number of Italian American artists who are Italian American. I asked them how they felt their culture informed them personally as well as their art, and they all responded.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">McDowell added to this by citing the great influx of immigrants to Italy in recent years and Italian immigrants to America in the past few centuries, as well as the xenophobia that both countries exert against immigrants. \u201cThis show is important because of the crisis right now politically, with a lot being said not in favor of immigration and immigrants, demeaning them,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThis is kind of a slap in the face of that political attitude, saying, \u2018Well, look, you know, we’re creative. We’ve built things here. We’ve benefited the place.\u2019 And every culture can say that\u2026 this is what made this country,\u201d he boldly proclaimed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The exhibit began in New York City at the Calandra institute, and was brought over from the smaller venue in Manhattan to Cumming\u2019s Art center in Connecticut, where Mattera was able to expand the showing due to the new larger space. Its opening reception was on September 14, and it will continue to be open for viewing until October 19.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYou really get a broader sense of the idea of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">italianita<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, of how one sense of Italian-ness, and how that gets translated into artwork. The space is fantastic,\u201d he continued.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another eye-catching sculpture is hung on the first floor, a warped interpretation of baroque architecture and Italian Roman Catholic imagery, and symbolism deconstructed into a black, melded form dusted with the slightest touch of gold shimmer. John Monti\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Black Frost <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">serves as a reclamation and reconstruction of one\u2019s unique culture, taking traditions and adapting them to one\u2019s individual identity. \u201cI was proud of my parents\u2019 story and the Italian culture we were part of, but that was really \u2018their\u2019 story. I wondered: What was mine?\u201d said Monti. \u201cI eventually found my story through art.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though the nearby abstract oil painting <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Large Carbon Riff<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> may present as an exploration of the technical aspects of art like line, color, shape and texture, artist Lloyd Martin expresses his role as an artist and his work\u2019 connections to his heritage, his pieces serving as a testament to his family and culture. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have applied to art school or college if it were not for Filomena\u2026 The example of hard work and the support that my family demonstrated is the only reason I am still at it, working toward an imagined ideal that still seems within reach.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cEveryone’s story was interesting, slightly different, and yet there was a thread that ran through all of them,\u201d said Mattera.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"tmnf_excerpt\"><p>Courtesy of Amelia Racicot ’27 Located on the first floor of Cummings, Don Porcaro\u2019s art gallery Everybody Knows speaks to the dual-identity of many Italian-Americans, and the recognition of one\u2019s Italian heritage through the medium of marble \u2014 a material of great historical and cultural significance in Italy. Porcaro illustrated it best in his artist\u2019s …<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":62613,"featured_media":26980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/IMG_6071-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62613"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26981,"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26979\/revisions\/26981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}