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<\/a><\/div>\nA Legacy of Making,\u00a0<\/i>Part\u00a0<\/i><\/span>2\u00a0<\/i>i<\/span>n the Carney Gallery of Regis College in Weston, Mass., through May 10<\/span><\/p>\n The artists in this exhibition are Joe Cultrera, Grace DeGennaro, Michaelangelo Giaquinto, Aldo Longo, Robert Maloney, Lloyd Martin, Thomas Micchelli, Wayne Montecalvo, Hugo Rizzoli, Grace Roselli, Roberta Tucci, Mark Wethli, and Carleen Zimbalatti<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n From left: Lloyd Martin, two by Mark Wethli<\/p>\n As you glance around a gallery that features a good deal of abstraction, you may wonder about the Italian connection, so let me share some of the underpinnings of the show. Grace Roselli is represented by photographs of four Italian American women, including herself, who have made contributions to the larger art world; in her drawing,\u00a0Nonna’s Thread,\u00a0<\/i>Carleen Zimbalatti remembers the handwork she learned from her Italian grandmother; Grace DeGennaro draws her iconography from the rose windows of the church, as does Aldo Longo, who went on to explore mandala imagery as well; Thomas Micchelli draws his inspiration from a panoply of Italian sculptors and painters from Michelangelo to Morandi; Wayne Montecalvo taps into cinematic history with an image in his mixed-media work of Napoli’s most famous figlia,<\/i>\u00a0Sophia Loren; and filmmaker Joe Cultrera, tells the story of how an Italian family, his own, recovered from improprieties committed by a priest at St. James church in Salem, Massachusetts. Read on. There’s more.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n Joe Cultrera, poster for Hand of God<\/i><\/p>\n Behind Cultrera’s poster and\u00a0 along the first wall, we see work by Michaelangelo Giaquinto, Aldo Longo, and Wayne Montecalvo<\/p>\n Michaelangelo Giaquinto, clockwise from top left: Viewing Distance, <\/i>2020;\u00a0Saturn, <\/i>2020; Sitting Cross Leg on the Floor, <\/i>2021; Night Dreaming,<\/i>\u00a02020; all mixed media collage on panel, 10 x 8 inches or 8 x 10 inches<\/p>\n Michaelangelo Giaquinto,\u00a0Blue Moon,<\/i> 2020, mixed media on wood panel, 10 x 8 inches The intimate collages on Aldo Longo,\u00a0Gnostic Vision #1,<\/i> 2016, oil and collage on canvas, Longo grew up in an Italian <\/p>\n Wayne Montecalvo,\u00a0\u00a0Marie Antoinette<\/i>, 2022, mixed media, insulation foam, digital images, Montecalvo’s\u00a0<\/i>images are drawn from a Continuing along the wall with Carleen Zimbalatti’s\u00a0Nonna\u2019s Below: A closer view of Nonna’s Thread<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n From a family of stone As we continue around the gallery, you see the screen where Cultrera’s film is playing. To the right of that is the work of Grace DeGennaro, below<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Grace DeGennaro, Dawn, Dusk, Night,<\/i>\u00a0all 2022, oil and cold wax on linen, 55 x 34 inches<\/p>\n DeGennaro draws inspiration from DeGennaro, Hugo Rizzoli; on pedestal: Thomas Micchelli<\/span><\/p>\n Below: A closer view of DeGennaro’s Dawn <\/i>with more accurate color and the vibrational movement of the black and white lines; 55 x 34 inches<\/span><\/p>\n A selection of mixed-media collages by Hugo Rizzoli<\/span><\/p>\n Lower Pedestal:\u00a0Red Temple,<\/i> 2023, 16 x 12 inches; higher pedestal:\u00a0<\/span>Mission Flowers,<\/i> 2024, 16 x 12 inches; on wall, clockwise from lower left:\u00a0<\/span>Flower Diamonds,<\/i> 2025, 12 x 9 inches;\u00a0<\/span>Joyance, <\/span><\/i>\u00a02024, 12 x 12 inches;\u00a0<\/span>Untitled (Spirit Points),<\/span><\/i> 2024, 12 x 12;\u00a0<\/span>Cardinal North, <\/i>2023, 16 x 12;\u00a0<\/span>Untitled (Ovals),<\/i> 2024, 12 x 12;\u00a0<\/span>A Flower and a Color and After almost two decades as <\/p>\n Joyance<\/i><\/p>\n A Flower, A Color, and Away!<\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Untitled (Ovals)<\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n To the right of DeGennaro and Rizzoli is Roberta Tucci, with Thomas Micchelli sculp[ure on pedestal in foreground<\/span><\/p>\n Below: Micchelli’s Two Heads,<\/i>\u00a02022, clay on painted wood base<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Roberta Tucci,\u00a0Chance of Storms: Likely, <\/i>2021, acrylic on three panels, overall dimension 58 x \u00a0\u201cI paint images that express how I perceive Roberta Tucci, Lloyd Martin, Mark Wethli<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lloyd Martin,\u00a0Grey Dyad,<\/i>2024, oil on canvas,<\/span> <\/i>90.5 x 90.5 Martin makes large-scale Mark Wethli<\/p>\n Above:\u00a0Ca Plane Pour Moi, <\/i>2022, flashe on wood, 12 x 9 x 2 inches<\/span><\/p>\n Below:\u00a0<\/span>Kindness, I Suppose, <\/i>2017, flashe on canvas, 48 x 36 inches<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Formerly a realist Left wall: Mark Wethli; far wall: Robert Maloney, Grace Roselli; pedestal: Thomas Micchelli<\/p>\n Thomas Micchelli, Four \u201cItalian art and culture Robert Maloney,\u00a0Innerstate Gold,<\/span><\/i> 2021, relief print on Masa Maloney is taken with the structure Grace Roselli<\/p>\n Above: Claudia DeMonte<\/a><\/div>\nCuratorial notes: Thirteen artists, most of whom live, work, or grew up in New England, are featured in the fourth iteration of A Legacy of Making, <\/i>my curatorial project inspired by Italianit\u00e0, <\/i>which I\u00a0published in 2023 to acknowledge the heritage that informed us as artists. At a time when ethnicity and cultural legacy are topics of discussion in the art world as well as society at large, both\u00a0A Legacy of Making<\/i>\u00a0and Italianit\u00e0<\/i>\u00a0contribute to the conversation with art that expresses the immigrant experience as expressed through Italian American lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\nview here contain imagined worlds of history, science, and religion with a
\nsense of the mysterious. \u201cMy experience in Italian culture began the day I was
\nborn,\u201d says the artist. \u201cGiaquinto<\/i> translates to already fifth,<\/i>
\nand I was the fifth male child in the family, born on the fifth of May.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n30 x 24 inches<\/span><\/p>\n
\ncommunity in New Haven, Connecticut, where the stained-glass windows of the
\nchurch made a profound visual impact on him. When the Navy sent him to Japan, a
\nnew and different culture opened up to him. As an artist, he found himself
\nintegrating the two cultures. Among the many bodies of work he has produced in
\nseven decades is a series of mandalas that reflect, he says, the rose windows
\nof churches he attended as a youth and the Japanese temples that affected him so
\ndeeply as an adult.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\ncharcoal, cardboard,\u00a0<\/span>36 x 23 x 2.5 inches;\u00a0<\/span>Frito,<\/i> 2023, mixed media, digital images, insulation foam, wax, encaustic
\npaint, Foamcoat, cardboard, powdered graphite, 40 x 36 x 2.5 inches;\u00a0<\/span>Sophia,<\/span><\/i> 2024, mixed media, digital images, wax,
\npowdered graphite, India ink, insulation foam, cardboard, Foamcoat, caulk, 30 x
\n22 x 2 inches<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nvariety of sources, but the processes with which he works them are typically of
\nhis own invention. In the series on view here, he gives us three familiar
\nwomen: the queen of excess, Marie Antoinette; the painter Frida Kahlo as a
\ngirl; and the glorious Sophia Loren, in an image from her
\nheyday, on what look to be artifact walls replete with ethnic icons and
\ndecorative tiles. Look closer. These \u201cartifacts\u201d are in fact thoroughly modern\u2014digital
\nimages mounted on Styrofoam with a mix of other materials, like cardboard and
\nwax.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nThread,<\/span><\/i>
\n2022, acrylic and ink on paper, app. 24 x 24 inches plus frame<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\ncarvers\u2014her great grandfather worked on Mount Rushmore\u2014and strivers, many of
\nwhom worked in creative industries, Zimbalatti brings\u00a0<\/span>together craft and fine art in her work. Line is her means
\nof growing geometric shapes: grids or networks that offer a sense of deep space,
\nor chromatic squares with a symmetry that invites contemplative viewing. \u201cForms
\nemerge slowly and hypnotically from its use,\u201d says Zimbalatti of the line. Nonna\u2019s
\nThread<\/i>\u00a0refers to the handwork practiced by
\nher grandmother.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nher attendance at church, specifically the glowing light of stained-glass
\nwindows and the kinesthetic experience of fingering rosary beads in prayer.
\n\u201cFrom an early age, Catholicism gave me a sense of the existence of both the
\nvisible and the invisible,\u201d she says. DeGennaro makes meditative geometric
\npaintings composed of orderly configurations of dots, which she refers to as
\n\u201cbeads.\u201d Here, three paintings from the Rosette<\/i> series transcend a
\nspecific religion. \u201cEach of my paintings is offered as both an antidote to the
\ndistractions of our everyday world, and as an entrance to the collective
\nunconscious,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nAway!,<\/i> 2024, 12 x 15 inches; center:\u00a0<\/span>Tamburello,<\/i> 2024, 12 x 16 inches<\/span><\/p>\n
\nthe owner of a bookstore, Rizzoli<\/span>\u00a0now makes art with a
\nvisual narrative suggestive of architecture\u2014buildings, walls, intimate spaces.
\nHis small-scale collages and paintings feature a pared-down geometric style,
\nplayful yet serious, in which he employs papers and fabrics, most with the soft
\npatina of age. Rizzoli describes his aesthetic as \u201cmelding remnants of past
\ntime with present sensibility.\u201d A new element in the work on exhibition here is
\nVenetian plaster, a material that has been used on walls since Roman times, which
\nenhances the architectural quality of the work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n31 inches<\/span><\/p>\n
\norganic forms and the world of nature,\u201d says Tucci<\/span>. Her
\nwork bursts with energy, whether in the release of exploding shapes, or the
\ncontained dynamism of meandering lines, or here in a tripartite painting, Chance
\nof Storms: Likely,<\/i> which suggests a powerful meteorological event about to
\ntake place. A first visit to Italy as a young adult allowed her to connect with
\nher Italian culture and family, absorbing, she says, \u201cthe essence of a living
\nancestry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n(two horizontal panels)<\/span><\/p>\n
\npaintings consisting of horizontal color bands punctuated by vertical
\ndemarcations. It is an architectural sensibility rife with rhythm, even
\nmusicality. You could say there is nothing necessarily \u201cItalian\u201d about the work,
\nbut looking at the shallow geometric space articulated in Sienese paintings, made
\nin the 14th<\/sup> century at the dawn of the Renaissance, you might
\nreconsider. In any case, it was a strong-willed maternal grandmother and
\ngenerous artist uncle who guided Martin to his career choice. They might not
\nhave used the word mentor,<\/i> but that\u2019s what they were for him. \u201cMuch of
\nwhat I am today I credit to my grandmother, Filomena Maccarone,\u201d says the artist.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\npainter of exquisitely serene interiors, Wethli t<\/span>urned his attention to geometric abstraction some 25 years ago. It was a big
\nchange, but he carried with him the same compositional sense of balance and
\nharmony. \u201cI try to paint geometry the way that Giorgio Morandi painted
\nbottles\u2014using something as humble as the rectangle,\u201d he says. Wethli is
\nrepresented in this exhibition by two works: a<\/span>\u00a0small constructed piece that could be seen as a flat sculpture or a bas relief painting, and a painting, shown together below. The
\nconversation between the two works is lively. To listen in you need only to
\nspend some time looking.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nHeads,<\/i><\/span>
\n2022, wax on painted wood base, 10.5 x 12 x 12 inches<\/span><\/p>\n
\nform the double helix defining my life and work,\u201d <\/span>\u00a0says Micchelli, who is represented in this exhibition by two
\nmulti-element sculptures. Working in wax, clay, or other malleable materials,
\nhe carves or builds figures\u2014here, heads\u2014that speak to the human condition. Micchelli
\ndepicts a range of human emotion, from consternation to surprise, serenity to
\nanger. While not conventionally handsome, the figures are compelling\u2014present
\nand powerful despite their relatively small size.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\npaper with black and metallic inks, 44 x 36 inches<\/span><\/p>\n
\nof the urban landscape. Italian on his mother\u2019s side (Steriti), he was deeply
\naffected by \u201cthe passage of time and layers of history\u201d he encountered
\nthroughout his travels in Italy. Reflecting those layers, the distinctly
\nAmerican work included in this exhibition is a woodblock print comprised of multiple inkings that
\nresults in an impossibly dense metropolitan vision. The work, printed from
\na 44-by-36-inch plywood plate, carries the marks of the carving process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Below: Nancy Azara<\/p>\n
Read more here<\/span><\/b><\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n