Maurizio Pellegrin (born July 21, 1956) is an Italian and American visual artist. He works with installations, photography and video. He is married and has two sons.
Biography
Maurizio Pellegrin was born in Venice, Italy in 1956. He lives in New York and Venice.Alice Rubbini, Maurizio Pellegrin in Writings on Maurizio Pellegrin 1980 - 2006, Skira., Milan, 2006 pp.8-13 He graduated in Art History at Ca' Foscari University of Venice. Simultaneously he devoted himself to the study of Studio Art at the Accademia di Belle Arti of Venice where he earned a MFA in Studio Art.Maurizio Pellegrin - Faculty, National Academy Museum and School In the 90s Pellegrin started his academic career. He was the Director of the Venice Program Master of Art of New York UniversityM.A. Program in Studio Art, Venice Italy: Course Information where he also taught for almost two decades. In those years he joined the Teachers College, Columbia University where, besides teaching,A "COLLECTOR OF OBJECTS" JOINS TC FACULTY he was offered the position of Senior Curator of the Gallery.Maurizio Pellegrin to Curate International Photo Exhibit at Macy Gallery, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, February 2007. He also taught in the Department of Architecture at Rhode Island School of Design. Later, in 2011, he was appointed Director of the School at the National Academy Museum and School, New York, where he later became the Dean National Academy Museum and School Directory and where in 2014-2015 he was also the Creative Director.Bertrand, Sandra. Intriguing Exhibit of Self-Portraits Featured at the National Academy Museum, Highbrow Magazine, New York, April 2, 2015. Thanks to his international experience in 2017, Pellegrin was appointed Chief Executive of Cultural Affairs at two ancient Venetian institutions, I.R.E.I.R.E and Fondazione Venezia,Fondazione Venezia where he created the program Observatory for the Arts whose objective is to sustain cultural debate, to maintain the institutions' historical sites and overall to support life itself in Venice.Observatory for the Arts Always in 2017 he founded the New York School of the Arts where is now the Executive Director.
Pellegrin's work has been the subject of more than 150 solo exhibitions and hundreds of group exhibitions in international galleries and museums. His works are in major private and public collections worldwide where, as an omnivorous collector, he arranges found objects gathered during his travels around the world, akin to Venetian traders of the past. He meticulously composes antique objects, dress patterns, musical instruments, threads, black and white photographs and other items according to an intricate, personal system of organization.Dan Cameron, Maurizio Pellegrin in Writings on Maurizio Pellegrin 1980 - 2006, Skira., Milan, 2006 pp.58-61
There is a vast literature on his work, being the author and subject of more than 30 monographs, and his work has been published in more than 500 articles and essays.Fossati, Filippo, MP: Flying Trains, Hanging Notes and Other Thoughts, Marignana Arte, Venezia, 2015
Work
Maurizio Pellegrin began showing his work in the early 1980s. By the middle of the decade, he was creating installations with his structured and organized system of objects and their symbolic associations. He arranged found objects that he had gathered during his travels around the world, channeling his passion and knowledge of antiquities through his work.Romanelli, Giandomenico (2005), Pilgrimage of Spiderman in Maurizio Pellegrin, Charta, Milano, Pellegrin has always been interested in the way objects transmit energy and how the memory of their use endures. He sees objects as the testimony of human life and artifacts of memory, as well as the remains of life after death. He ascribes meaning to his work based on the science of Numerology,Villa, Giuditta Pellegrin: Pop e Pitagora, Flash Art, Milano, March April, 1992Terrie Sultan. Numbers Teaches us the Nature of Going out and Return of the Soul in Writings on Maurizio Pellegrin 1980 - 2006, Skira, Milan, pp.50-56 2006 Turner, Jonathan. The Game of Numbers in Writings on Maurizio Pellegrin 1980 - 2006, Skira., Milan, 2006 pp.84-93 or the study of numbers and their influence on human life based on their symbolic and arithmetic values. His installations deal with the concept of space– both physically and philosophically– becoming universes organized by symbols and metaphors. The arrangements of objects and materials develop a new hierarchy in which their previous functions are drastically changed. Step by step, the capacity of communication and the inner power of the different elements (often wrapped by the artist to contain the energy) establish a new world of relations.Francesco Bonami, Dark Lantern in Writings on Maurizio Pellegrin 1980 - 2006, Skira., Milan, 2006 pp.78-81 Colors, which are always few, are then chosen for specific philosophical implications and psychological effects.Mac Adams, Alfred. Black and White Universe in Writings on Maurizio Pellegrin 1980 - 2006, Skira., Milan, 2006 pp.66-67 Pellegrin's wall arrangements and installations are characterized by a somber beauty, personal and historical references. The incorporation of mostly black and white photography in Pellegrin’s work, along with video, began in the 1990s and continues to play an important role today.Casali, Vincenzo, The Obsession of Existence: The Films Art of Maurizio Pellegrin between Comedy and Conceptual Seriousness in Writings on Maurizio Pellegrin 1980 - 2006, Skira., Milan, 2006 pp 198-201
Selected exhibitions
Maurizio Pellegrin at the age of 26, in 1982, started showing at the international Galleria Il CapricornoRebora, Simone. Un'isola a Venezia, Il Capricorno di Bruna Aickelin. Artribune 23 giugno 2103 in Venice, Italy where he had the chance to meet artists such as Keith Haring, James Brown and Donald Baechler.Mazzariol, Giuseppe.Maurizio Pellegrin. Flash Art, n. 107, 1982 In the late 80s he moved to Rome where his rigorously structured wall installations became widely known in Italy thanks to multiple exhibitions at Galleria Valentina Moncada,Villa, Giuditta. Maurizio Pellegrin. Flash Art, March–April 1992 Paolo Vitolo,Cherubini, Laura.Maurizio Pellegrin. Flash Art, 1990, n. 156 and Il Ponte Contemporanea.Turner, Jonathan.Maurizio Pellegrin: Nothing is Casual. Art News, Oct. 1994 Pellegrin's career made an advance in 1988 when he was invited by Giovanni Carandente to participate to the XLIII Venice Biennale.Portoghesi, P., Carandente G. (1988) Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte La Biennale di Venezia, XLIII : Il luogo degli artisti : Catalogo Generale 1988, Fabbri, Milano, Italy. This occasion lead him to have solo exhibitions in important American museums such as the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego in 1990 (exhibition curated by Lynda Forsha),Freudenheim, Susan. ART REVIEW : Treasures From Mundane Items : Exhibit: Maurizio Pellegrin proves that it's not what you arrange, but how you arrange it. Los Angeles Times, October 30, 1990 The Corcoran Gallery of Art (exhibition curated by Terrie Sultan), Washington D.C in 1992, and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) (exhibition curated by Fereshteh Daftari), New York in 1993.Daftari, Fereshteh (1993) Readymade Identities….Pellegrin et al., The Museum of Modern Art, New York. His trips to the United States intensified because along with the museum exhibitions, arrived the possibility of working with Jack Shainman Gallery (1990–95) and Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York,Cristensen, Judith. “The Secret of Numbers”. Artweek, n.4, 1991 and Feigen Incorporated in Chicago.Mc Cracken, David. Pellegrin’s Art is Imbued with Melancholy. Chicago Tribune, 24 May 1991 In the 1990s Pellegrin divided his time between New York and Venice. In New York for John Gibson GalleryHeartney, Eleanor. Maurizio Pellegrin : Jack Shainman and John Gibson Gallery. Art News, Oct. 1993 and Esso Gallery,Nahas, Dominique, The Writing Room-Maurizio Pellegrin at the Esso Gallery, DART International, Vol.3, n.1, Toronto, Winter 2000 in L.A. for Mark Moore Gallery,Pagel, David. Maurizio Pellegrin's Constellations of Long-Lost Love, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, December 2, 1993 in Venice, Italy for Nuova Icona,De Martino, Enzo, Stanze Concettuali, Il Gazzettino, December 8, 1997 and in Cleveland for the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art among others, Pellegrin conceived a cycle of site-specific works which involved the entire space of the gallery, sometimes covering the walls with monochromatic quilts or metal sheets, recreating unexpected atmospheres animated by objects and recurring motifs. Pellegrin further developed his interest for the challenges given by the space, pre-existing energies, and history creating site-specific works also in historical museums, churches, palaces, and gardens throughout the world. The images of many of these site-specific works are collected in the books Maurizio Pellegrin - Reflection and Intention (1999)Caldura, Riccardo...et al., Maurizio Pellegrin: Reflection and Intentions, Arsenale Editrice, Venice, June 1999. and Maurizio Pellegrin by Alice Rubbini (2005).Rubbini, Alice. Maurizio Pellegrin, Charta, Milano, 2005 In the meantime Pellegrin exhibited in Germany in a few galleries among which Andreas BinderSonna, Birgit. Aktuell in Münchener Galerien. Süddeutsche Zeitung, München n. 226 and Galerie Thomas in Munich,Botterbusch, Vera. Galerie Thomas. Suddeutsche Zeitung, December 7, 1988 and Galerie Beck & Eggeling in Leipzig.Frey, Roswitha. Rätselhafte Objekte, die phantastische Geschichten erzählen. Badische Zeitung, July 1999 From 1995 to 2002 Pellegrin worked with Lisa Sette Gallery in Scottsdale, creating installations focused on black and white photography, one the leitmotiv of his work. In 2005 his hometown, Venice, celebrated Pellegrin in eight museums simultaneously. The project called Isole was organized on a series of site specific exhibitions, in the Doge's Palace, Museo Correr, Museo di Palazzo Mocenigo, Ca' Rezzonico, Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna (Venezia) Ca' Pesaro, Stanze Monumentali della Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, and others.Cunaccia, Cesare, Dialoghi del tempo, AD, Architectural Digest, n. 292, p.100, September, 2005Di Martino, Enzo, Isole: un progetto di Maurizio Pellegrin; il dialogo dissonante con l’arte del passato, Il Gazzettino, Venice, p. XIV, September 3rd, 2005. Isole reveals the influences that have informed Pellegrin’s work including photography and cinema, poetry and literature, architecture, and music. The following year, in 2006, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice opened its doors to Pellegrin who, for the occasion, presented a selection of video installations in an exhibition called It’s a Jungle out There: the Illegal Maurizio Pellegrin, 12 films.Gillo Dorfles It’s a Jungle out there: The Illegal Maurizio Pellegrin, 12 films at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Falcon Court Press, Venice, 2006 (catalogue), with an introduction by Alice Rubbini In Italy, Pellegrin has exhibited in other galleries among whom Studio Giangaleazzo Visconti, Milan;Studio Giangaleazzo Visconti di Milano: Maurizio Pellegrin – All the Colors of the Void Milano Arte Expo, September 2012 Studio Tommaseo – Trieste Contemporanea, Trieste;Tobier, Nicholas. Maurizio Pellegrin. Juliet Art Magazine, Trieste n.64. Oct. 1993 and Marignana Arte, Venice where in 2015 he showed Flying Trains, a large suspended installation where delicate curves of seemingly weightless railways generate a soft centrifugal force.Testino, Arianna, Le eredita’ energetiche di Maurizio Pellegrin, Artribune, May 28, 2015
Selected bibliography
Fossati, Filippo, MP: Flying Trains, Hanging Notes and Other Thoughts, Marignana Arte, Venezia, 2015 (catalogue) Graeme Sullivan, Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in the Visual Arts, Chapter 3, edition 2 (2010)