Stefano Arienti

September 8 - October 22, 2005
540 West 26th Street

Press Release

Lehmann Maupin is pleased to present new work by Italian artist Stefano Arienti. In the tradition of Arte Provera, Arienti utilizes found images and printed materials, which are then altered to great effect. The exhibition features a major installation, along with a floor sculpture and wall piece.

The installation Mimetic incorporates layers of fabric in all shades of dark green, such as military cloths, nets, and embroidered curtains, which are fastened to the walls of the gallery along with strips of sliced posters. The alternating fabric and paper create depth, while the shadows of the patterned cloths, of tree trunks and foliage, merge into a dense, green forest.

Also included in the exhibition is a floor sculpture entitled Spires of the Duomo, which is fashioned from souvenir-style postcards of the famous cathedral in Milan. Arienti cuts and folds the mass-produced images of the Duomo so that they take on new meaning. Pre-existing associations shift and the viewer perceives the subject matter differently. The great monumental dome is reduced in scale to a miniature mazelike structure of interlocking, more intimate experiences.

A similar process of cutting and collage is used in the creation of Arienti's wall piece Blue Mountain. Here Arienti alters a cliché mountainscape, disorienting the original image and allowing for the discovery of more. Arienti's minimal yet effective gestures of cutting and collage allow for the transformation of mass-produced, banal materials to become entirely altered.

About the Artist

Stefano Arienti (b. 1961) lives and works in Milan. His work has been shown extensively in Italy and internationally, in both group and solo exhibitions. Arienti was recently the subject of a major retrospective at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin and the Maxxi Museum in Rome. Arienti has also been included in the Milano Europa 2000 Triennial, the 3rd International Istanbul Biennial, curated by Vasif Kortun. His work is in major public and private collections worldwide.

For more information, please contact us at info@lehmannmaupin.com or (212) 255-2923.

Artists in this exhibition

• Stefano Arienti

Exhibition Works

Mimetic, 2005 textiles and printed posters dimensions variable LM9033


Montagna Blu / Blue Mountain, 2004 printed posters 63.78 x 38.98 inches 162 x 99 cm LM9034


Guglie del Duomo / Spires of the Duomo (Cathedral), 2005 postcards dimensions variable LM9035