Magazzino Italian Art, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute in New York and Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at New York University, presented the first U.S. solo exhibition and new site-specific work by artist Namsal Siedlecki. An opening reception was held at the Italian Cultural Institute on October 28, from 6:00–8:00 p.m. Guests provided proof of vaccination in order to attend.
On view from October 29 through December 4, 2021, Namsal Siedlecki: Viandante featured new and recent bodies of work in a variety of media, ranging from sculpture and painting to installation. Siedlecki’s work typically explores dichotomies, such as the natural and manmade, as well as the relationship between nature, time, and human intervention. This exhibition illuminated his ongoing investigation of these concepts while taking a particular interest in themes of travel, transformation, and extinction in the artist’s practice.
Namsal Siedlecki: Viandante explored wayfarer (“viandante” in Italian) as its point of departure: travelers in constant motion, transforming in relation to the places and environments they spend time in. This exhibition applied the concept of a wayfarer’s transitory state to materials by including works created through alchemical processes that involve physical changes over time and pieces that trace almost entirely depleted natural sources to revitalize them in new forms.
Through its title, Namsal Siedlecki: Viandante directly recalled a history of travelers, traveling, exploration, and conquest, and creates a unique dialogue between past and present. All of the works included in the exhibition invited visitors on a journey through time and space and also address the impact humans have had on the natural world.
Highlight works by the artist on view include:
Serpentino antico (2021), which takes its title from a rare type of marble that has been entirely exhausted by human exploitation through quarrying. The artist used 3D scanning to archive the negative space within an original bronze bust–choosing to memorialize the form inside of the sculpture through a material that no longer exists.
Verneuil (2021), a cast bronze sculpture of a machine used to produce synthetic rubies. This piece addressed the ability of human beings to create machines that artificially replicate, accelerate, and take control of a typically natural process. It acts as a time machine by giving us a glimpse into the future we are rapidly heading towards.
Viandante (2021), from which the exhibition takes its name. Sculptures of a human figure, meant to represent the traveling person referenced in the title, are placed within a galvanic tank that initiates a continual process of material loss and gain. While complete upon entry, the sculptures start a new journey within this chemical bath, one of transformation and unending change.
Siedlecki’s Deposizione series (2020), realized through a process of sedimentation. To create the canvas on view, Siedlecki submerged it in a “petrifying fountain” filled with calcium-rich water. After approximately four to six months, the flat surface of the canvas organically accumulated crystals of calcite and transformed into richly textured, sculptural relief. Here, as in much of Siedlecki’s work, time and its transformative potential play a crucial role in the creative process.
Nuovo Positivo (2021), a sculpture conceived in the same way as Serpentino antico. Siedlecki uses a 3D printer to create another version of the original bronze sculpture’s internal void, this time in wax, which is then immersed in a galvanic tank. Copper settles onto the shape, forming the sculpture’s new skin.
In conjunction with the exhibition at the Italian Cultural Institute, Siedlecki premiered a new installation, Trevis Maponos (2021), located inside the dwelling area of Magazzino’s Sardinian donkeys.
The Italian Cultural Institute is open Monday - Saturday, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. during the duration of the exhibition.
About Namsal Siedlecki
Namsal Siedlecki (b. 1986, Greenfield, USA), lives and works in Seggiano, Italy. His practice explores different dichotomies and the relationship between nature, time, and human intervention. Through a diverse range of media and processes, including 3D printing, casting, and intricate chemical treatments, Siedlecki’s work interrogates questions of transformation, change over time, and extinction.
His works was recently exhibited in venues such as: MAXXI, Rome; GAMeC, Bergamo, Palazzo Reale, Milan; Musèe Bargoin, Clermont-Ferrand; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; American Academy in Rome, Rome; Villa Medici, Rome; 6th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Moscow; Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa, Venice; Magazzino, Rome; ChertLüdde, Berlin; Galleria Acappella, Naples; Very Project Space, Berlin; Frankfurt am Main, Berlin; Galeria Boavista, Lisbon; Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato; Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon; Villa Romana, Florence; Cripta747, Turin. In 2015 he won the Cy Twombly Italian Affiliated Fellow in Visual Arts at the American Academy in Rome.
About the Italian Cultural Institute
The Italian Cultural Institute in New York was founded in 1961 by the Italian government. Its mission is to promote Italian languages and cultures in the United States.
Under the guidance of its trustees at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, its advisory board, and its staff, the Italian Cultural Institute of New York fosters cultural exchanges between Italy and the U.S. in a variety of areas, from the arts to the humanities, to science, and technology.
Central to the Italian Cultural Institute’s activity is its collaboration with the most prominent academic and cultural Institutions of the East Coast. The scientific exchanges, the organization of, and support to visual arts exhibitions, the grants for translation and publication of Italian books, inspire and nourish the Institute’s initiatives.
In particular, we focus on the relation between memory and innovation, identity and identities in Italian civilization. The Italian Cultural Institute of New York, therefore, provides an “open window” on main cultural and social aspects of past and current Italy.
About NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, home of the Department of Italian Studies at New York University, was established—thanks to a generous donation from the Baroness Mariuccia Zerilli-Marimò—as a permanent and constructive homage to her husband, Guido Zerilli-Marimò. Casa Italiana was inaugurated in November 1990 with the mission to promote the deepening of knowledge of Italian civilization in the United States. Casa Italiana develops a rich and qualified program of extracurricular, cultural events ranging from Italian literature to political theory, to figurative arts, to the history of science. Begun by the first Director, Professor Luigi Ballerini, the Casa began to collaborate with both public and private Italian centers and institutes that have the common objective of extending Americans’ understanding of Italian culture. In 1998, the direction of the Casa was passed to Professor Stefano Albertini, whose leadership has allowed the Casa to become an esteemed center for cultural discussion, making New York University one of the most important centers of European and international studies in the world.