Magazzino Italian Art at Expo 2025 Osaka with Maria Lai
June 24, 2025
Magazzino Italian Art at Expo 2025 Osaka with Maria Lai
Cold Spring, New York, June 24, 2025—Thanks to the first retrospective dedicated to Maria Lai in the United States, Magazzino Italian Art will participate in Expo 2025 Osaka, represented by its Artistic Director and curator of the exhibition, Paola Mura.
The occasion will be a talk dedicated to the great artist, organized by the Department of Culture of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia at the Italy Pavilion on Friday, June 27 (11:00 AM - 1:00 PM in Osaka; 4:00 AM - 6:00 AM CET), streamed live and later available on YouTube.
The event, titled “Maria Lai: A Thread Across the Map of the World”, will feature presentations by Paola Mura and Marco Peri from the Stazione dell’Arte in Ulassai.
“With the exhibition Maria Lai. A Journey to America, on view through July 28, 2025,” explains Paola Mura, “Magazzino Italian Art has not only paid tribute to one of the most visionary Italian artists of the 20th century, but has also reignited the deeply contemporary and universal value of her work. Following Maria Lai’s thread today means building connections, crossing boundaries, and opening up spaces for encounter.”
The exhibition Maria Lai. A Journey to America includes approximately 100 works by the artist, many of which are being presented to the public for the first time. Most of the pieces in the exhibition have never been shown in the United States. The show offers a comprehensive overview of Maria Lai’s artistic production, from her early works in the 1950s to her projects in the 2000s, with a special focus on her exploration of collective and relational art.
From May 17 to July 28, 2025, as part of the exhibition, the large-scale installation Llencols de aigua, created by internationally renowned designer and artist Antonio Marras together with Maria Lai, is being presented in the United States for the first time.
Paola Mura joined Magazzino Italian Art as Artistic Director in 2024. She brings over 30 years of experience in the conservation and management of cultural heritage. She holds a Ph.D. in Architecture with a specialization in Museum Studies and a Master’s degree in Conservation and Management of Contemporary Art.
Before joining Magazzino, Dr. Mura served as Director of the Civic Museums of Cagliari, where she oversaw the reinstallation of the institution’s modern, contemporary, and Asian art collections. She has collaborated with the City of Cagliari, the Italian Ministry of Culture, and the EACEA Agency of the European Commission, contributing to significant cultural heritage projects at both the national and European levels.
As Artistic Director at Magazzino, Dr. Mura curated Marco Anelli: Building Magazzino 2014–2024 (August–October 2024) and the current exhibition Maria Lai. A Journey to America (November 2024–July 2025). Her work at Magazzino emphasizes the importance of fostering connections between contemporary Italian art and a broader international audience, strengthening the institution’s role as a platform for cultural dialogue.
About Magazzino Italian Art
Magazzino Italian Art is a museum and research center dedicated to advancing public appreciation and understanding of postwar and contemporary Italian art in the United States. Located in Cold Spring, New York, the museum was founded in 2014 by Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu. In 2017, it opened its first building—designed by architect Miguel Quismondo—within a large park set in the landscape of the Hudson Highlands. The inaugural exhibition drew from the Olnick Spanu Collection and was dedicated to Margherita Stein, founder of the historic Galleria Christian Stein in Milan and a key supporter of artists associated with Arte Povera.
Established as an educational non-profit museum, Magazzino Italian Art expanded its indoor space by two-thirds in September 2023 with the opening of an additional standalone building—the Robert Olnick Pavilion—designed by architects Alberto Campo Baeza and Miguel Quismondo. This pavilion adds 13,000 square feet including exhibition space, a multi-purpose community room, an education classroom, Café Silvia, and The Store. Campo Baeza conceived Gallery 2 as an isotropic room, a perfect cube, where windows were strategically placed at each corner to create a sun-dial effect.