Italy: Philadelphia Artists Celebrate 150 Years
Curated by Shara Wasserman

Dates: April 27th – May 5th, 2011
Hours: Wednesday to Sunday 12 – 6 pm
Location: Grey Area
Reception: Tuesday April 27th, 6 – 9 pm

Generous support for this project was offered by Temple University Rome.

From April 27 to May 5, the Italian Consulate of Philadelphia will present Italy: Philadelphia Artists Celebrate 150 Years, an exhibition commemorating the 150th anniversary of Italian Unity. The program is intended to honor March 17, 1861, that very important day in Italian history when Parliament declared the Regno d’Italia -- the Kingdom of Italy -- and Vittorio Emanuele II the King. People throughout Italy came out to celebrate the anniversary; it is the intention of this exhibition to allow this celebration to continue in Philadelphia in honor of the residents who trace their heritage to Italy.

The exhibition unfolds in two locations and with a rich and varied program.

On April 27, from 6 –9 pm, the Crane Arts Center – 1400 N. American Street -- will inaugurate the video mix Italy: Philadelphia Artists Celebrate 150 Years. This represents a compilation of the works of the 15 participating artists, each present with a two-minute sequence of images or a short film.

Crane Arts presents on April 27, from 8:30 - 9 pm, composer and guitarist Jim Dragoni who will sing “Compie 150 anni” a piece dedicated to the bridge between the United States and Italy through a mix of their national anthems. Studio Director of The Music Studio Jim Dragoni is a veteran performer, teacher and musical technologist. Music lessons, workshops, performances, lectures and master classes are all currently on the program of the Studio, intended as a place where talent and culture are promoted in the community.

On April 28, from 6 – 9 pm, the Consulate General of Italy in Philadelphia – 150 S. Independent Mall W. – will inaugurate the exhibition Italy: Philadelphia Artists Celebrate 150 Years. The participating artists honor Italy’s anniversary thorough their own personal reflection on Italy and on this historical moment. The show presents works in a variety of mediums – painting, sculpture, photography, drawing – with the intention of displaying a vibrant artistic production.

The participating artists are Stefania Luciani Binnick, Carol Caputo, Nancy Citrino, Rachel Citrino, Anthony Cortosi/Karen McDonnell, John Costanza, Francesca Costanzo, Gerard Di Falco, Ashlee Ferlito, Jon Manteau, Jennifer Martorello, Brigida Michopulos, Francesca Pfister, Glen Sacks, Jacqueline Sandro.

Curator Shara Wasserman is instructor of contemporary art and Director of Exhibitions at the Temple University Rome Campus in Rome, Italy.

For additional information please contact: Giorgio Galanti, Education Director, C.G.I. in Philadelphia at 215 279 9565

Grazia Toderi’s Red Orbits
Curated by Ludovico Pratesi and Shara Wasserman

Dates: April 27th - May 5th, 2011
Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 12 - 6 pm
Location: Icebox
Reception: Wednesday, April 27th, 2011, 6 - 9 pm

From April 27 to May 5, the Crane Arts center of Philadelphia will present the solo show of Grazia Toderi (Padova, Italy, 1963), one of the most important Italian artists of the recent generation. Promoted by the Italian Consulate of Philadelphia on the occasion of the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of Italian unity, the exhibition presents “Red Orbits,” created for the 2009 Venice Biennale “Making Worlds,” curated by Daniel Birnbaum, and “Pulse 60xz,” 2010.

The video projection takes its name from oval orbit of satellites and planets, a theme already addressed by the artist in 1996 in a video entitled “Nata nel ‘63”, and from then a recurrent theme in her work.

“Red Orbits” represents a double orbit, referring to the two cavities of the eyes in the human head and to the cartographic representation of the earth by two compressed globes. The work is an aerial city view through luminous images in continuous motion, infused by a red light -- the color of the sunset or the aurora borealis, the night color of the cities or the chromatic component of our closed eyes.

This cosmic reference is further underlined by the noteworthy dimension of the Icebox Project Space, the exhibition space in the Crane Arts building, which transforms the work into a visual and conceptual horizon of great intensity and visual impact. The choice of “Red Orbits” to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Italian unity is in part suggested by a different Italian city landscape, layered together to create a unique city and landscape that could be anywhere in the world. In Toderi’s work there are also references to the glorious memory of Italian postwar cinema through art historical connections, from Fellini’s “Roma” to Pasolini’s “Decameron” and Visconti’s “The Leopard.”