Tea with the artist – a conversation with artist Pietro Costa (New York – Naples)
Tea with the artist
Chatting with artist Pietro Costa (New York – Naples)
happening
April 13, 2024
from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM
C/O SuperOtium
via Santa Teresa degli Scalzi, 8 – 80135 Napoli
On April 13, 2024, from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM, we are delighted to present “Tea with the Artist,” a unique opportunity to join an informal “studio visit” and conversation and explore the works of artist Pietro Costa, who boasts a four-decade-long artistic career, primarily based in New York.
Throughout the event, taking place from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM, you are invited to join at any time to immerse yourself in Costa’s artistic world. We will delve into his art practice spanning from the 1980s to the present and his involvement realizing major artwork projects for other artists and museum institutions including the various Guggenheim Museum venues, Richard Serra, Dan Flavin, and Mario Merz.
Costa began his artistic practice in New York in the early 1980s, relocating with his family as a child. Over the years, he has explored a wide range of materials, processes, and elements, including light, fire, terrestrial gravity, words, and blood (both his own and from donors), aiming to investigate the duality between image and object, real and represented space, artistic creation, and ritual. As the artist himself states: “Essentially, my practice inhabits two universes, the one shared by all and the individual universe within each of us.”
Some of the artist’s works will accompany this event, with a selection available for viewing and purchase at SuperOtium’s premises until December 2024.
The event is part of the cultural program curated by Nicola Ciancio for SuperOtium (a project conceived by Nicola Ciancio and Vincenzo Falcione) and aligns with this season’s theme, “Look Closer,” inviting audiences to examine things closely to discover their details, depths, and imperfections.
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Pietro Costa began his artistic practice in New York in the early 1980s, exploring the relationship between image and object, real and represented space, artistic creation, and ritual. Since then, he has investigated a wide range of materials and processes such as light, fire, terrestrial gravity, his own blood, and blood from donors. In his journey of bicultural upbringing, the use of words in some installations explores the plurality of meanings. The artist declares: “Essentially, my practice inhabits two universes, the one shared by all and the individual universe within each of us.”
His latest project, “ri.tràt.ti / pôr trāts” (April-July 2022), was exhibited in Prato at the Museo di Palazzo Pretorio. The exhibition and catalog, published by Silvana Editoriale, were curated by Chiara Spangaro, an independent curator and scientific curator of the Aldo Rossi Foundation. Costa’s work has been commissioned and exhibited by numerous museums, galleries, and private collections in the United States and Italy, receiving extensive media coverage. He has worked on hundreds of exhibitions worldwide for various Guggenheim Museum venues, creating large-scale works for numerous artists including Richard Serra, Dan Flavin, and Mario Merz, alongside renowned curators such as Carmen Gimenez, Germano Celant, and Walter Hopps. Additionally, since 2002, he has been the founder of two non-profit organizations based in New York: BACAS and Luquer Street Projects, through which he contributes to numerous projects with social and environmental impact.
SuperOtium is a house in the heart of Naples, founded by Nicola Ciancio and Vincenzo Falcione, designed to welcome tourists, artists, travelers, and creatives. A meeting place where artist residencies, events, exhibitions, and accommodation coexist to inspire artists and creatives and challenge the assumptions of travelers, proposing new perspectives through which to view the city. The SuperOtium residency program has hosted, among others, Kensuke Koike, Pietro Gaglianò, Massimo Uberti, Hypereden, Bianca Felicori (Forgotten Architecture), Paz Ortùzar (in collaboration with the Cervantes Institute of Naples), Giovanna Silva (in collaboration with Lorenzo Xiques), Nuvola Ravera (in collaboration with Made in Cloister), Blase (in collaboration with ShowDesk), Yasser Almaamoun (in collaboration with the Goethe Institut), Khaled El Mays (in collaboration with Edit Napoli).