NEW YORK’S MAGAZZINO ARTS SPACE ANNOUNCES INAUGURAL PROGRAMMING
Magazzino, a new private Hudson River Valley arts space that will house art patrons Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu’s collection of more than four hundred works of postwar and contemporary Italian art, will be open to the public by appointment only and free of charge starting June 28, 2017. An exhibition of works devoted to Margherita Stein, founder of the historic Galleria Christian Stein in Turin, Italy, and one of the pioneers of the Arte Povera movement, will inaugurate the space.
The exhibition will feature a selection of works created by artists whose careers Stein fostered, including Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Giulio Paolini, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, and Gilberto Zorio. Born and based in Turin, Margherita Stein assumed the alias “Christian Stein,” borrowing her husband’s first and last name in order to gain acceptance in the art world. Between 1966, when the gallery first opened, and 1999, Stein was responsible for supporting artists associated with Spatialism, the Zero Group, and Arte Povera, bringing early recognition to the latter movement, first in Italy and Europe, and later in the United States.
“The inaugural presentation at Magazzino will not only focus on the core group of artists associated with the Arte Povera movement but will also incorporate artists from the following generation, including Marco Bagnoli, Domenico Bianchi, and Remo Salvadori,” director Vittorio Calabrese said. “The aim of the initial presentation is not solely to be a survey of Arte Povera, but rather an homage to the vision of Margherita Stein and her role in shaping and advancing these artists’ careers. Our goal is to always have one gallery dedicated to presenting temporary exhibition of contemporary art.”
Magazzino, which means “warehouse” in Italian, is an 18,000-square-foot facility including galleries, administrative offices, an orchard, and a library with more than five thousand publications. Leading the project is architect Miguel Quismondo, who conceived of a design for the space that required repurposing a preexisting structure.
“The project pays tribute to its name by reiterating its integrity as an industrial warehouse,” Quismondo explained. “The existing building has been stripped to its basic components, while the addition is built with structural cast-in-place concrete and metal girders, creating a modulated repetition. The balance of natural light, the contrasting shell, and versatile height of the new component [establish] a harmonious dialogue between the existing and the addition.”
