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<\/a><\/p>\n<\/span><\/div>\n <\/span>A new version of the show,\u00a0<\/span>A Legacy of Making: Contemporary Artists Inspired by Their Italian Heritage,\u00a0Part 1,\u00a0<\/i>runs through December 21.<\/span><\/span>at Regis College<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>in Weston, Massachusetts.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0The work of New England artists is featured in this dramatically angled space in the Fine Arts Center. Part 2 opens in February<\/div>\n A panoramic view before we begin our walk-through of the Carney Gallery at Regis College We Despite Gallery hours are Monday-Saturday, 9:00-4:00. (Scroll to the end for a campus map.) And take note: Part 2 will take place mid-February through mid-May.\u00a0<\/p>\n View from the entry. We begin our tour from the left wall<\/p>\n <\/p>\n From left: Charyl (Urbano) Weissbach, Claudia DeMonte, Joanne Mattera, Brian Alterio<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Charyl Weissbach<\/b> <\/p>\n Etude 8,<\/i> 2020, encaustic and gold leaf on panel, 24 x Baroque, peacock,<\/i> 2014, encaustic, mica pigments, and Charyl (Urbano) Weissbach<\/span><\/b>\u00a0is represented by a selection of small, ornate paintings in encaustic. The Claudia DeMonte<\/b> Detail below<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here\u2019s Weissbach, DeMonte, Joanne Mattera, Brian Alterio<\/p>\n Joanne Mattera My own work\u00a0<\/span><\/b>is Brian Alterio After a <\/p>\n Milisa Galazzi, Debra (Messina) Claffey<\/p>\n Milisa Galazzi<\/b> <\/p>\n As a child, Milisa Galazzi<\/b> <\/span>learned to sew a from <\/p>\n Debra Claffey<\/b><\/p>\n Turners II,<\/i> 2017, encaustic monotype in 18 panels, Claffey, Tracy Spadafora<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tracy Spadafora<\/b><\/p>\n Vestige (Part 10), <\/i>2012, mixed media on wood boxes, <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Spadafora, Jeanne Brasile, John Avelluto<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jeanne Brasile Language is a challenge for non-English-speaking arrivals to this country. Italians typically spoke four languages at home: the dialect of their\u00a0paese,<\/i>\u00a0or village; standard Italian by those sufficiently educated; heavily accented English (usually ungrammatical) laden with Italian syntax, which we referred to as Broken English; and standard English, which was spoken by the younger, American-schooled members of the family. A multigenerational family dinner might have all of these languages going at once.\u00a0Jeanne Brasile<\/b>\u2019s shredded text in a blender,\u00a0Mixed Messages,<\/i>\u00a0is a wonderful metaphor for this\u00a0mescolanza,<\/i>\u00a0this mix.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThough I studied the Italian language, I am far from fluent,\u201d says Brasile. Like many of us, she heard dialect at home but was not encouraged to speak it. When she took an Italian class, she was surprised to learn that the \u201csharp-sounding\u201d language she grew up hearing bore little resemblance to what she describes as the \u201cmellifluous, even poetic\u201d language she was learning in school. \u201cI felt cheated,\u201d she says, \u201cas if somehow my home experience was not quite authentic.\u201d She needn\u2019t have worried. Italian dialects, as well as the creole and patois of other languages, are increasingly recognized by linguists for their own richness of syntax and expression.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Brasile, Avelluto, Cianne Fragione<\/p>\n <\/p>\n John Avelluto<\/b> John Avelluto<\/span><\/b> draws from Southern Below Cianne F<\/b>ragione<\/b><\/div>\n Heaven and Earth Are Dressed in Their Summer Wear<\/i>, There Fragione, Amore, back view of\u00a0 Jennifer Cecere’s\u00a0Doily<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cUntil a generation ago, Cecere <\/b>makes public Continuing around: B. Amore, Timothy McDowell (Macellari)<\/p>\n Added to the exhibitions on October 24, 2024: Claudia DeMonte<\/p>\n Claudia DeMonte<\/b><\/p>\n Il Corno,\u00a0<\/i>2013, pewter and gold leave on painted wood, 14 x 14 x 3 inches<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n DeMonte<\/b> taps into “We carry the history of out families and A framed assemblage from that show, Following the Thread II: The filo rosso<\/i><\/span>—<\/i>the red thread\u2014that Also on <\/p>\n Timothy McDowell<\/b> <\/p>\n Despite his Scottish McDowell\u2019s images, while often drawn from art history, also depict If you plan to visit<\/b><\/p>\n The Carney Gallery is located in the Fine Arts Center. You can park on the side of the access road opposite the Fine Arts Center or in the lot behind the building. Click image to expand the map.<\/p>\n Gallery hours are Monday-Saturday, 9:00-4:00.<\/p>\n
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Here, the work of Jennifer Cecere, suspended from the ceiling, takes the modesty of women’s traditional handwork into ambitiously large scale:\u00a0Doily,\u00a0<\/i>printed and laser-cut industrial screening, eight feet in diameter<\/p>\n
\nare the children and grandchildren of Italian immigrants. We are American by birth,
\neducation, and culture, but by heritage and home life we are Italian. We grew
\nup navigating between identities in the languages we spoke or responded to, the
\nfoods we ate, the references we understood, and the often vastly different expectations
\neach culture held for us (especially for women).\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nthe disjunct, we recognized early on the richness of our Italian traditions. While
\nmuch was passed down along gendered lines\u2014the women sewed and cooked; the men
\nbuilt\u2014there were exceptions. Men were tailors or chefs, just as women made wine
\nor tended businesses. Everyone made things, fixed things, figured out ways to
\nget things done. We observed and learned, often helping out. Filtered through
\nthe experience of art school training, we brought many of these skills into our
\nart practice. Our progenitors might be shocked at how we have put our skills to
\nuse, but translating is not just for language.\u00a0<\/span>In
\nPart One of <\/span>A Legacy of Making, <\/i>on
\nview through the end of this semester, we look at these translations of culture
\nin three areas: Immigration, the Natural World, and the Textile Tradition.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
Baroque, celadon, <\/b><\/i>2017, encaustic, gold leaf,
\nmica pigments, UV resin on Belgian linen on panel, 16 x 16 inches<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n12 inches<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\ngold leaf on Belgian linen on panel, 12 x 12 inches<\/b><\/p>\n
\nelement of Neapolitan Baroque is strong in her work: dramatic patterns in high
\nrelief inflected with gold leaf. If there is a suggestion of wrought iron in
\nthe compositions, it may be because her paternal grandfather was a metalsmith,
\na trade that fascinated the young Weissbach, especially when she watched him
\ncast molten metal into objects. And although it may not be intended by the
\nartist, there is the visual suggestion of brocade, a silk fabric embellished
\nwith floral patterns. This richness of design is brought to bear in the medium
\nWeissbach chooses for her painting, neither metal nor fiber, but encaustic
\npaint. Worked when molten, encaustic, which is pigmented wax, can be built up
\nor carved into, making it ideal for the sensuous physicality of the artist\u2019s
\nexpression.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
Cose Che Ho Fatto (Things I have Done),<\/i> embroidery on
\nlinen, 49 panels, overall 73.5 x 60 inches<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\na little of what you will learn from Claudia DeMonte<\/b>\u2019s installation, <\/span>Cose Che Ho Fatto
\n(Things I Have Done)<\/span><\/i>:
\n<\/span>She danced with Rudolf Nureyev
\nat a disco, walked on the Great Wall of China with Mohammed Ali, had lunch with
\nthe protean sculptor, Louise Nevelson. She sailed on the Ganges, made offerings
\nto the orisha Yemanja on New Year\u2019s Eve in Rio de Janiero, and worked as a
\nmodel. This is not the life of an Italian American girl who grew up in the
\nSixties, yet she conveys the anecdotes of a world traveler through the medium
\nof embroidery, which every Italian woman learned at home.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/b>Silk Road 338, <\/i>2016, encaustic on panel, 12 x 12
\ninches<\/p>\n
\nsuggestive of fabric. In a series I have titled Silk Road,<\/i> the paintings
\nare first and foremost color fields, reductive in hue and composition. However,
\na textile influence is apparent in the edge-to-edge swipe of the paint, just as
\na fabric is woven selvedge to selvedge, and in the visually tactile surfaces
\nwhose ridges and slubs are suggestive of douppioni silk. I am the great
\ngranddaughter of weavers, the granddaughter of a tailor, and the niece of two
\nwomen\u2014one a dressmaker, the other an embroiderer and lacemaker\u2014whose handwork
\nhas left an undeniable imprint on my expression. The sewing and knitting I did
\nwith my aunts opened a creative pathway to art school, and there I became a
\npainter.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/b>Garlic Scapes,<\/i> 2012, photograph<\/p>\n
\nlong career on the technical side of digital photography,\u00a0Brian Alterio\u00a0<\/b>returned to a view through the lens, as he had in art school. Described in
\none review as \u201ca digital scientist with a poetic soul,\u201d Alterio photographs
\nnature in all its aspects, from the human form to landscape to plant life, the
\nlatter represented in this exhibition by a vividly illuminated black-and-white
\nimage. \u201cI think that from my Italian blood was borne a passion for life. That
\npassion spawned my photographic language. My images are about life,\u201d says the
\nartist. With its graceful arabesques, Alterio\u2019s Garlic Scapes<\/i> connects culturally and horticulturally to one of the
\nmost notable elements of Italian cuisine.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
Super String Theory, <\/i>\u00a02015, paper, thread, and encaustic,\u00a0 93 x 40 x 12 inches<\/p>\n
\nher paternal grandmother who dispensed advice like,\u00a0 \u201cGood girls should always be sewing\u201d and \u201cA
\nlady always mends and fixes.\u201d Galazzi found Grammy\u2019s comments \u201cannoying,\u201d but
\nappreciated learning the skills. Now she <\/span><\/span>makes \u201clace\u201d that originates as
\na drawing whose line she stitches by hand. (Grammy would be proud!) After
\ncutting away the negative space of the drawing, Galazzi dips each hand-stitched
\nsheet into a vat of warm wax, which stiffens and transparentizes the paper, and
\nthen installs it, with other similarly cut and waxed sheets, into a layered
\nrelief sculpture whose shadows are as integral to the work as the cut paper
\nitself. In this installation, her <\/span>Super String Theory<\/span><\/i> <\/span>not only dialogs with
\nits own shadows but with the twists and curves of Brian Alterio\u2019s Garlic Scapes,<\/i> near which it is placed.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\noverall, 48 x 96 inches<\/p>\n
\na child was caring for the family\u2019s backyard tomato plants, she has cultivated
\na strong relationship to horticulture in her adult life. One might attribute
\nthe connection to her Sicilian genes, which are closely aligned with the cycles
\nof planting, cultivating, and harvesting. (She is a Messina<\/b> on her mother\u2019s side.)\u00a0
\ncareer in garden care\u2014she founded her own company\u2014is intertwined with a studio practice
\nthat focuses on plant forms.\u00a0 \u201cI celebrate plants: their great age and history
\non the planet, their intelligence and successful adaptations, their beauty of
\nform, shape, and infinite color,\u201d she says. Her <\/span>Turners II <\/span><\/i>is a large-scale, multipart <\/span>encaustic monotype dense with layers of ferns,
\nsuggestive of a botanical garden.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n14 x 10 x 3 inches\u00a0
Vestige (Part 11), <\/i>2012, mixed media on wood boxes,
\n14 x 10 x 3 inches<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
The
\nmaternal side of\u00a0Tracy Spadafora<\/b>\u2019s family is from the cool Alpine
\nnorth while her paternal side is from the hot Mezzogiorno. In Italy this would
\nhave been an improbable family union, but in the melting pot of the United
\nStates it is not so unusual. Both sides of the family were gardeners, which not
\nonly put food on the table but brought color and beauty into their homes. \u201cMy
\nown love of gardening and appreciation for the natural environment is one thing
\nfrom my Italian heritage that has influenced my artwork directly,\u201d says
\nSpadafora, who addresses what she describes as \u201ca complex and shifting
\nrelationship between humans, our biological roots, and the shaping of our
\nnatural environment.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Her <\/span>Vestige (Part 10) <\/span><\/i>and Vestige (Part
\n11) <\/i>express her thinking
\nabout the environment that sustains us all, right down to the DNA of things.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/b>Mixed Messages,<\/i> 2021, blended and shredded card
\ncatalogs, 15 x 8 x 8 inches<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
Above:\u00a0<\/b>Johnny Cakes,<\/i> 2023, acrylic on panel, 12 x 9 inches<\/p>\n
\nItalian and Sicilian tropes to create art that depicts our foods, customs, and
\nexpressions. His trompe l\u2019oeil<\/i> relief
\npaintings of pastry look tempting enough to taste. But don\u2019t. They are
\nfashioned with acrylic paint. His drawings depict the <\/span>mal\u2019occhio <\/span><\/i>(evil eye)\u2014maloik<\/i> in
\ndialect\u2014and the way to protect against it. To Southern Italians, the mal\u2019occhio<\/i> is a curse cast upon you by someone
\nwho is jealous of who you are or what you have. One way to fight off the curse
\nis with the mano cornuto,<\/i> or horned
\nhand. The index finger and pinkie make horns of the hand, a little deal with
\nthe devil to keep evil away. <\/span>In the 21st-century this may seem laughable, but
\nSouthern Italians\u2014those from Naples and farther south\u2014hold fast to their
\nbeliefs. Hey, a little protection can\u2019t hurt, right?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Maloik, <\/i>2017, acrylic paint films, 13 x 11 inches
\nframed
Cornuto 2,<\/i> 2017, acrylic paint films, 13 x 11 inches
\nframed<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n2007-2009, oil and fabric on canvas, each\u00a0
\n90 x 30 inches; from left: Flapper Dress,<\/i> Red Dress Curtain,
\nPink Jacket with Blue Ribbon<\/i><\/p>\n
\nare many influences in any artist\u2019s life. One in particular for Cianne Fragione\u00a0<\/b>was a Sicilian\u00a0nonna<\/i>\u00a0who ran a dressmaking
\nbusiness out of the front room of her family\u2019s Hartford, Connecticut, home. \u201cWith
\nonly a door to separate us, I saw my grandmother all the time. She made me
\ndresses, coats, and hats, which reinforced the integrity of the crafted object
\nfor me and at the same time contributed to my sense of composition and form,\u201d
\nshe says. Fragione\u2019s long-running, mixed-media series,\u00a0Heaven and Earth
\nDressed in Their Summer Wear<\/i> incorporates
\nclothing into her paintings. The three panels presented here are but a
\nfew of many that stretch across a wall, offering a visual connection between
\nthe artist\u2019s childhood and her present as a contemporary artist. A \u201cclothesline\u201d is thus her metaphor
\nfor time.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\nalmost everyone practiced handwork,\u201d says Jennifer Cecere<\/b>. \u201cWomen, especially, knitted, crocheted, and embroidered, and girls
\nlearned by example. All of us then had a connection to these traditions. Not so
\nmuch anymore, but what does endure from my own experience, in addition to a
\nlove of needlework, is how intent my Italian grandparents were in weaving their
\ntraditions into the experience of their children and grandchildren in this new
\ncountry.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nart: large-scale renditions of lace in materials as diverse as ripstop nylon
\nand brushed aluminum, which she has laser cut, bringing together the modesty of
\nhandwork with the ambition of a professional artist. She is represented here
\nwith an outsize doily printed on screening that stretches across the gallery.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nItalian folklore with her Corno<\/i> sculpture.<\/i> The corno, <\/i>or
\n<\/i>horn, is typically rendered in gold, silver, or coral as a small talisman worn
\non a chain around the neck. It is meant to ward off the mal\u2019occhio,<\/i> or
\nEvil Eye, a curse leveled at you by someone who is angry with you or jealous of
\nwhat you have. In the 21st-century this may seem laughable, but Southern
\nItalians\u2014those from Naples and farther south\u2014hold fast to their beliefs. Hey, a
\nlittle protection can\u2019t hurt, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
Following the Thread II: Giovannina,<\/i>. 2000, mixed
\nmedia assemblage, 24 x 48 inches
Below: Giovannina\u2019s handwoven linen sheet with her initials\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nour cultures in our psyches as well as our genes,” says\u00a0
B. Amore.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/span>Through a long career,\u00a0she has researched and documented seven generations of her Italian
\nfamily, maternal and paternal, a journey that culminated in 2000 in the
\nbrilliant installation of photographs, objects, and papers exhibited at the
\nEllis Island Immigration Museum in New York City.\u00a0Life Line, Filo Della
\nVita: An Italian American Odyssey<\/i>\u00a0then traveled to museums in San
\nFrancisco and Boston, Rome, and finally to Napoli, where her family\u2019s journey
\nbegan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nGiovannina Forte,<\/i> is included here.<\/span> <\/span>This
\nwork depicts Amore\u2019s maternal great grandmother who came to America at the age
\nof 54, a reluctant immigrant, with her husband and three children, one of whom
\nwas Amore\u2019s grandmother, Concettina.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nruns through the work represents a Neapolitan tradition of departure. The
\nperson boarding ship carried a ball of yarn, while the person at the dock held fast
\nto the unfurled loose end. As the ship pulled away, the ball unwound in an attenuated
\ngoodbye.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nview is a linen bed sheet that Giovannina wove on her domestic handloom and the
\niron used to press it flat after washing. You\u2019ll note the iron is not electric.
\nEven into the early years of the 20<\/span>th<\/sup> century, heavy irons like
\nthese were heated on the top of a coal or gas stove and then placed on a fabric
\nto flatten it, a process repeated over and over until the ironing was finished.
\nDomestic chores, carried out almost exclusively by women, were physically
\ndemanding.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
Dream Park, <\/i>2023, oil on panel, 30 x 24 inches
Siren\u2019s Call,<\/i> Lampedusa, <\/i>2023, oil on
\npanel,\u00a0 25 x 20 inches<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nsurname,\u00a0Timothy McDowell\u00a0<\/b>has had a lifetime of extended periods in
\nItaly among the members of his mother\u2019s family, the Macellari.<\/b> His history is not one of Southern Italians fleeing
\npoverty but of educated Northerners remaining on their ancestral land. His is a
\nlineage of accomplished musicians, designers, architects, publishers, and
\npainters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nour contemporary culture. In Dream Park,<\/i> a Renaissance figure hovers
\never so faintly above a Vespa, the motorized scooter that replaced the bicycle
\nin post-World War II Italy and remains a chic and handy means of
\ntransportation. <\/span>In Siren\u2019s Call, <\/i>Lampedusa, <\/i>McDowell looks at a different
\nkind of immigration\u2014not away<\/i> from Italy but to<\/i> it. North Africans are making the treacherous journey by boat to
\nSouthern Italy, often to the Sicilian Island of Lampedusa, which is closer to
\nthe coast of Africa than it is to the boot of Italy, for the same reasons our
\nItalian forebears left for America: to make a better life.<\/span><\/p>\n