Exhibition Opening
Paola Pivi: Come check it out
October 3
5:00-9:00 PM
Join us at Contemporary Calgary for the opening of Italian artist Paola Pivi’s first major institutional solo show in Canada. Be among the first to experience Paola Pivi: Come check it out on Thursday, October 3, from 5–9 PM.
Doors
5:00 PMRemarks
6:30 PM | AtriumIn-Conversation with artist Paola Pivi & curator Kanika Anand
7:00 PM | AuditoriumBook Signing with Artist Paola Pivi
8:00-8:15 PM | Flanagan GalleryGalleries Close
9:00 PM
FREE to the public. No registration is required.
Seating for In-Conversation with artist Paola Pivi & curator Kanika Anand will be first come, first served.
This exhibition opening is presented in collaboration with FREE First Thursdays.
Paola Pivi
Come check it out
October 3, 2024—March 2, 2025
Come check it out is Italian artist Paola Pivi’s first major institutional solo show in Canada. Born in Milan, Italy and currently residing on the Island of Hawai’i, Hawaii, Pivi’s practice subverts the familiar and ordinary in ways that expands on our relationship with the built environment.
The exhibition includes sculptural installations that question the authenticity of iconic landmarks and symbols like the Statue of Liberty and the Polar bear, symbols that have come to stand in for ideas of freedom and the global climate crisis respectively. Staged as seemingly whimsical and theatrical assemblages, Pivi employs the power of association to unpack and demystify the contrived relationship between the natural and manufactured worlds, and in so doing invites us to reflect on our choices, and the inherent responsibility they carry. Animals feature prominently in her cast of characters alongside readymade and repurposed objects, placed in unnatural or unreal situations that makes the hand of the human, though unseen, starkly present. Her work seeks the truthful and factual in ways that peel back layers of misinformation, and stereotypes, but with a sense of irony and playfulness that allows for wider engagement and deeper introspection.
Curated by Kanika Anand.
About the Artist
Paola Pivi (she/her)
Paola Pivi won the Leone D’oro at the Venice Biennale in 1999 for the best national pavilion, along with other 5 artists. She was part of the Venice Biennale (1999, 2003), Manifesta (2004, 2014), Berlin Biennale (2008), Echigo Tsumari Triennale /2015) and Yokohama (2017).
She made public artworks for the Public Art Fund and the High Line in New York in 2012 and 2022 and for Sculpture International Rotterdam in 2010.
Pivi has had solo shows in international institutions such as: Fondazione Trussardi, Milan (2006); Kunsthalle Basel (2007); Tate Modern, London (2009); Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai (2012), Castello di Rivoli (2012), FRAC Bourgogne, Francia (2014), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2014), Dallas Contemporary (2016), The Bass Museum, Miami Beach (2018), MAXXI, Roma (2019), Arken Museum, Danimarca (2020), The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh (2022), [mac] musée d'art contemporain, Marsiglia (2023).
