NEW
YORK ARTIST LUCIO POZZI CREATES DRAMATIC LARGE–SCALE PAINTING
FOR SITE-SPECIFIC INSTALLATION IN WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY’S
BEN SHAHN GALLERIES
Lucio
Pozzi, a pioneer of performance art, installation and site-specific
work, presents a dramatic site-specific exhibit in the Ben Shahn Galleries
at William Paterson University in Wayne from March 25 through April
26. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission
is free.
Titled "People and Things – 2002," the exhibit is essentially
a painting in eight parts. Each of the eight parts is painted on an
unstretched canvas measuring 6 feet wide and 22 feet high. The imagery,
spontaneously invented abstract and representational figures, is rendered
with a few small brushes and black paint, resulting in a giant pattern
in black and white.
Pozzi was inspired by the temple-lie structure of Ben Shahn’s
Court Gallery, which features four free-standing walls within a glass-enclosed
courtyard. The paintings will be exhibited by draping them, two per
wall, over the walls, thus covering the walls from top to bottom.
At the base, they will be anchored by black and white framed photographs
taken by Pozzi of clusters of people on the University’s Caldwell
and Zanfino plazas on University Day 2001.
While the exhibit is designed on a grand scale, Pozzi works with only
a three and a half-yard section at a time, never actually viewing
the whole. "I start from the edge that is left in view and new
ideas develop," he explains. "Often at this stage I paint
images upside down so that as the canvas falls on the other side of
the wall, the visuals will appear to rise."
"This exhibit is heroic in scale as well as in the commitment
of time and labor," says Nancy Einreinhofer, director of the
Ben Shahn Galleries. "Lucio Pozzi is an artist who pursues painterly
ideas and concerns in many different media. While the paintings have
been created specifically for our gallery, this installation is designed
to travel and be adapted to fit every subsequent venue by cutting,
folding or altering the canvas in any manner or way."
In lieu of the traditional exhibition catalog, an artist’s book
mimicking a puzzle of postcards and reflecting the imagery of the
installation accompanies the exhibit.
Pozzi’s career spans four decades. He has exhibited his work
throughout the world, including the Venice Biennale, the Art Institute
of Chicago, and the Whitney Museum. In 1978, the Museum of Modern
Art exhibited his early videotapes in one of the first single-artist
exhibitions of the Projects: Video series. His work is represented
in the collections of the New York Public Library, the Museum of Modern
Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Museum of Contemporary
Art, Chicago, among others. In 1983, Pozzi was honored with a National
Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.
The exhibit is one of three shows on view concurrently in the Ben
Shahn Galleries. On view in the South Gallery is "Northeast Prints
2002," a juried show featuring works by 42 professional printmakers
from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
In the East Gallery, Jersey City artist presents "Cityscapes:
Remembrances of Things Past," a one-person show featuring the
artist’s photographs of the World Trade Center, the Statue of
Liberty, and New York Harbor. All exhibits are free and open to the
public and are wheelchair accessible.
This exhibit is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey
State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of
the National Endowment for the Arts.
For additional information, please call the Ben Shahn Galleries at
William Paterson University at 973-720-2654. ###
- 3/18/02
For
Further Information, contact:
- Mary
Beth Zeman, Director, Public Relations 973-720-2966
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