Sunday, October 17th, 2-4pm

LA Biblioteca: Artists' Books from Los Angeles/Italia | Artists' Opening

Join us for the Artists' Reception for "LA Biblioteca: A Los Angeles/Italian Exchange" on Sunday, Oct. 17, 2-4pm at the Don B. Huntley Gallery located on the 4th floor of University Library!

Thursday, October 14th, 4-6pm

LA Biblioteca: Artists' Books from Los Angeles/Italia | Catalog Available!

Soft cover catalogs available for purchase for $15 plus tax
during Opening Receptions and regular Gallery Open Hours.

Thursday, October 14th, 4-6pm

LA Biblioteca: Artists' Books from Los Angeles/Italia | Campus Student Reception

Join us for the Campus Student Reception for "LA Biblioteca: A Los Angeles/Italian Exchange" on Thursday, Oct. 14, 4-6pm at the Don B. Huntley Gallery located on the 4th floor of University Library!

As a first-generation Italian-American, I often find myself embracing all things Italian: the food, the wine, the music, the art and architecture, the history, the people. All these elements are just a few that contribute to the beautiful experiences of “being” in Italy, and the memories that are so well and deeply ingrained in my psyche, and in my cultural, spiritual and emotional development. Like many Americans, and many of the LA-based artists in this show, I am an Italophile. It started at a very young age when my parents took me on a three-month camping adventure throughout Europe where, when in “our beloved Italy”, I got to see Michelangelo's  David, the Sistine Ceiling, Botticelli’s  Birth of Venus  and  La primavera  at the Uffizi and experience the oculus of the Pantheon on a rainy day, all by the age of seven. We visited my grandfather‘s Pugliese birthplace and got to meet family members that were either long-lost, or previously unknown to me, and it all felt like the most intense and submersive feeling of love that a child’s memory can hold: a zest for life, and love for family, friendship, food, art and place. As an adolescent, young adult, and later on, in my middle age —and a half-dozen visits later— my “childhood crush” has turned into a “love affair” via my continued explorations into this grand land, bringing new family members to this magical place, while maintaining the relationships with those family and friends that have spanned decades of my lifetime to date.  

This life-long romance with Italy, for me, is why the opportunity to facilitate an exhibition that brings together Los Angeles-based artists with Italian-based artists was so important to me....it is, in some small way, my “love letter” to a place I care deeply for —and will always. Moreover, it represents a “window” into the worlds and minds of others who are a little different from ourselves, and yet share so many commonalities which are voiced in a gorgeous publication, and in this collaboratively co-curated exhibition. 

Each artists' varied works surprisingly (or not) focus on many overlapping themes. Many of the artists represented here address the concept of evolution, and metamorphosis, while also probing for knowledge, history and truth. The "book" is so often recognized as a vessel for knowledge, whether it is lost knowledge, old, new, yet undiscovered, or newly re-discovered. The "artist book", in all its sundry forms, are also often affected by other forms of existing art and literature: these are oftentimes places and repositories for storytelling, invention and re-imagination. Literary inspiration often reflects the shared freedom of expression and truth-telling that comes from our two "civilized societies". The questions surrounding truth, and truth-telling, knowledge and (mis)information have been irrevocably tested in the US over these last few years. Perhaps this desire to retain and embrace truth, history and knowledge through the creation of these works reflect the artist's zealousness in expressing it. Through the act of saving and collecting written materials, letters, mementos, clippings, travel postcards, keepsakes, and other collected objects the artist displays the "artifacts" of truth. The exploration of words, phrases and ideas is a catalyst for the evolving but sedimentary foundation for truth to continuously be built upon. It cannot therefore be unraveled by the threat of lies and tropes. Interwoven disciplines, including popular culture, fashion, commercial photography, graphic design, advertising, anthropological artifacts, religious offerings, history, art history and architecture each inform the various works of these diverse artists. The transition from the two-dimensional page, into the three-dimensionality that these books become, conveys its passage from flatwork into sculpture, and in turn, sculpture as structure. So naturally, architectural and -tectonic forms emanate from these artforms. Some works capture this action through referencing sociologically and historically relevant structures, or utilizing the iconic landscape or interactions with nature with, or in the absence of, architecture or the human footprint. In doing so, these artist's express both assimilation and a transformative evolution, with connections between the ancient and modernism, or the abstract. 

The traditional bookmaking of ink on bound paper might be at the basis of a book creation, or distilled, or completely transformed. Letterpress and offset printing might also be at the root of many artists’ book creations. Hand-drawing and painting on handmade papers, or hand-binding and sewing are also often utilized as traditional bookmaking processes. But it does not end here. These artists, while pushing the boundaries of bookmaking techniques and the artist book creation process, also push boundaries where there are no boundaries. A diversity of media from these artists' books extends from the traditional into accordion- and scroll-based books that come alive as space-transformative sculpture; printmaking book-bound prints, and prints displayed in handmade boxes or clamshells delightfully reflect a compulsion toward detail; the innovative assembly of books-within-a-book, and vessels nesting inside vessels with the use of mixed media, collage, found object, fiber and textile art, embroidery and layered weaving, are used in both constructed and deconstructed ways. The use of technology and incorporation of photography into books (digital and non-), the creation of photobooks, and use of photocopy art, digital collage, collaboration, hand-animated stop-motion, video and collaborative video production demonstrate the vast extent that each of these artists will go in order to honor their goal through the language of visual expression and the conduit that is artist book creation. 

Many thanks to John for his great friendship and for sharing the vision of this exhibition with me several years ago. Along with him, co-curators Stefania and Raffaela, and all the artists that represent both LA and Italy: I thank you all for sharing this vision and your work with our campus community —on a campus where artist-faculty members not only make artist books themselves, but also empower our students by teaching the skills of bookmaking, in its various forms, during their pedagogical tenure. Thanks to all for your tenacity and perseverance in continuing to give this artform the air it needs and deserves, especially during a global pandemic, and a controversial, socio-political time in the US that was, and still is, often smothered by a lack of it. May books live on in all forms, in all places, so that our futures can be better for it! 

Michele Cairella Fillmore, Curator 
Kellogg & Huntley Galleries, Cal Poly Pomona 

Photo Caption from top to bottom: Roberta Elena Buema, Fashion design book, 2019, Mixed media, 12 x 9.5 x 1.75” (30 x 23 x 5 cm), Riccardo Pieroni Partial eclipse, 2018 "Reflections" series, edition of 10, 8 x 9” (20 x 25 cm), Portrait of Michele Cairella Fillmore

Curator Biographies

Raffaella Lupi 

Gallerist, curator, expert in the history of applied arts and restoration. Her experience as a teacher of decorative arts, history of restoration and marketing and her collaboration with important public institutions and private collections, reveal her passion for different cultures and eras. 

In 1988 she founded the Sinopia Gallery, in the heart of Rome, an exhibition space created with the aim of promoting dialogue between the ancient, modern and contemporary arts. it was an ambitious and expansive project to protect, disseminate and pass on this artistic heritage. 

Raffaella Lupi's work pays great attention to the experimentation with materials and to the enhancement of applied arts, giving the Gallery a strong multidisciplinary vocation. In this sense, the meetings with some artists such as Francesca Cataldi, protagonist of fiber arts and its multiple forms, Nino Caruso and all the artists of contemporary ceramic sculpture, Marussia Kalimerova and Lydia Predominato for fiber art leading up to Vito Capone, through whom the in-depth study on artist's books was born that inspired the exhibition 'Contexts - Contexts RM - LA' curated with Stefania Severi and John David O'Brien in the spaces of Galleria Sinopia. 

In recent years, her research has focused more on contemporary ceramic sculpture and fiber art, organizing exhibitions in private places (Galleria Sinopia, - Sio2, Spazio delle Cinque Lune - The Lab; Palazzo delle Pietre - Pietra Plasmata) and institutions such as the Museum of the Walls of Rome –TerraeMota; National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome - Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture in Italy; Scuderie Aldobrandini, Fra-scati - BACC; up to last exhibition set up at the Museums of Villa Torlonia - Casina delle Civette, Alchemy of Earth and Light; The Thousand Faces of Guerrino Tramonti's Ceramics (September 2020) dedicated to Master Tramonti and co-curated with Stefania Severi. 

Stefania Severi 

Roman, art historian, professor of art history in various colleges, she is currently a lecturer at the Alta Moda Koefia Academy in Rome. Art critic, member of the "Association Internationale des Critiques d'Art",she has curated more than 70 exhibitions in public spaces, in Italy and abroad (France, Spain, Luxembourg, Belgium, Poland, Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus), with related catalogs, and has written critical essays on numerous artists. She is responsible for the artistic sector of the Coop. Social Apriti Sesamo ONLUS of Rome. Publicist journalist, she collaborates with various newspapers, including “Voce Romana”, and is editorial secretary of the magazine “Lazio ieri e oggi”. Particularly attentive to the art, history and customs of Rome and Lazio, she published: “I Teatri di Roma” (Rome 1989, "Donna Città di Roma" Award), “A Century of Rome “(Ten itineraries to discover modern Rome, edited by the Department of Communication and Tourism of the Municipality of Rome, 2000), “Wine in Rome and Lazio” (2006), “Santa Maria in Montesanto, the Church of the Artists of Rome” (2010), “The mosaics in Rome from antiquity to the Middle Ages” (2015). Among the other publications: the novel “Vostra Veronica, life and loves of a courtesan” (Rome, 1996), and the essays “L'Essenza della solitudine, life of Dolore Prato (Rome, 2002, the prize for the essay at the National Prize “Il country of women ") and “Dolores Prato, voice outside the choir” (Ancona, 2007). Her stories, essays and poems are included in various publications. She wrote the plays: "Noantri, history of Rome in pills", "I Giulia Domna", "The story of Sempronia". She is a member of the Soroptimist International Club Roma Tiber of the Italian Union. 

John David O’Brien  

John David O’Brien has degrees in studio art an (MFA) from the USC, with an emphasis in 3D work,
an (AA.BB.) degree from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, Rome in drawing and decorative arts,
a (Magistero) degree from the Istituto Statale D’Arte di Urbino, Urbino, Italy for printmaking and was qualified as a Master Printer by the Calcografia Nazionale (National Etching Institute) in Rome, Italy. He was the recipient of a California Community Foundation Artist Fellowship in 2012, a City of Los Angeles Artist Grant in 1998 and a Fulbright Research Grant in 1994. He has had solo and group exhibitions in Los Angeles, Rome and New York among other locations since 1980. 

Photo Captions Top to Bottom: Raffaella Lupi photographed by Manuela Giusto, Stefania Severi photographed by Fotofficina Roma, John David O'Brien photographed by Todd Gray.

LA Biblioteca Talk & Tour

Watch John O'Brien and artists Nancy Monk, Stas Orlovski, and Susan Sironi walkthrough the exhibition and explain their artworks and thought processes. Learn the Guest Curator's development of the layout of LA Biblioteca and touch upon the meaning behind why he included various artworks and along with their history. 

Click here to download the LA Biblioteca: Artists' Books from Los Angeles/Italia Catalog.

Curatorial Panel

Gallery Curator Panel

John David O'Brien Artist Panel

Stas Orlovski Artist Panel

Mary Addison Hackett Artist Panel

Allison Laytin Dalton Artist Panel

Nancy Monk Artist Panel

Carolie Parker Artist Panel

Steve Roden Artist Panel

Susan Sironi Artist Panel

Francesca Cataldi Artist Panel

Eleonora Cumer Artist Panel

Vittorio Fava Artist Panel

Cécile Roingeard-Islasse and Roberta Elena Buema Artists' Panel

Luigi Manciocco Artist Panel

Lydia Predominato Artist Panel

Riccardo Pieroni Artist Panel

Maria Grazia Tata Artist Panel 

About the Virtual Exhibition

The LA Biblioteca: Artist' Books from Los Angeles/Italia Virtual Exhibition is an online exhibiton. You will be able to navigate this virtual exhibition without downloading any files.

Click the buttons below to be linked to the virtual exhibition! The first button has tags, or labels with information regarding each artwork and artist. The second button has no tags.

Virtual Exhibition with Tags           Virtual Exhibition without Tags     

Navigation

Using a mouse, click and drag to navigate throughout the exhibition. The circles on the floor are the points where you can stand. Use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out. To find more information on the artwork, click the colorful circles by a piece to open up a tag.