Giovanni Anselmo, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Pino Pascali, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Olga Balema, Elaine Cameron-Weir, Nina Canell, Jason Loebs, and Carlos Reyes
Contingencies: Arte Povera and After
October 23, 2017 - December 16, 2017
Luxembourg & Dayan celebrated the semi-centennial of the Arte Povera movement with Contingencies: Arte Povera and After, an exhibition placing select works by contemporary artists in dialogue with significant Arte Povera works from the 1960s and 1970s. Amid the sociopolitical upheavals of the day, Arte Povera artists questioned the established languages of government, industry, and culture by proclaiming the porosity of the artwork, and exalting in its contingency: suddenly, a potential chemical reaction or simple transfer of energy could comprise the work itself. Contingencies: Arte Povera and After considered the ways in which artists today similarly react to a world in turmoil by rejecting the autonomy of the art object in order to harness, engage, or interrupt systemic flows-whether those are organic, social, or technological-on a distinctly material level.
The exhibition was the latest in Luxembourg & Dayan's ongoing, critically acclaimed program devoted to the relationship between postwar Italian art and contemporary culture. The exhibition featured historical works by Giovanni Anselmo, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Pino Pascali, and Michelangelo Pistoletto. These were placed in conversation with contemporary works by Olga Balema, Elaine Cameron-Weir, Nina Canell, Jason Loebs, and Carlos Reyes. The exhibition was be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue featuring essays by art historian Alex Bacon and Josephine Graf.