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4/10/2005

Francesco Simeti

The Italian Academy at Columbia University, New York

Wood.sy - woodzee

curated by Olivia D’Aponte and Laura Barreca

The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at the Columbia University and The Italian Cultural Institute of New York are pleased to present Wood.sy /woodzee/an installation by Francesco Simeti

Italian Contemporary Art in New York is a new series designed to bring the best of modern Italian art to New York audiences. So often we regard Italy as the source of classical art and we forget to focus simultaneously on its rich artistic contributions of today.

Italian Contemporary Art in New York offers a selection of Italian artists that have recently gained international recognition, and all of whom have chosen a language connected to historical traditions of Italian art. The aim of this series is to demonstrate this "italian style," with in the context of American culture.

Wood.sy /woodzee/ will be the first exhibit of this series. It is a site specific installation created by Francesco Simeti in the Salone of the McKim Mead and White's 1927 Casa Italiana, reconstructed by Italo Rota and Sam White in 1993.

The Salone retains some of the casa’s original neo-renaissance detail and its wood furniture.

This space reminds the artist of American male sporting clubs, typically exclusive, and often associated with hunting and other predominantly male activities.

Simeti examines the subtleties of this “woodsy” environment and plays with themes involving its obscurity and inscrutability. Wood.sy /woodzee/ is characteristic of Simeti’s newer work in which he brings a complete environment to his audience.

Simeti selects, subtracts and re-utilizes images from the press, resizing them, making them uniform, and multiplying them so that they become visually imperceptible or simply assimilated into a new hierarchy of meanings.

For Wood·sy /wóodzee/, Simeti uses images and designs from 15th and 16th century Italian Botanical Prints along with illustrations and images from American hunting mail order catalogues.

Francesco Simeti (Palermo, 1968) lives and works in New York and Palermo. He is recognized internationally and has exhibited in museums and public and private spaces such as the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (ICA); XIV Quadriennale di Roma, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Roma; Netherland Media Institute, Amsterdam; The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia; The RISD Museum, Providence; Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York; Mu.dac, Lausanne.

Opening: October 5th, 6-8 pm

The Italian Academy
1161 Amsterdam Avenue - New York
Hours: Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm

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