Marianne Boesky Gallery is pleased to present Saudades, an exhibition of paintings by Pier Paolo Calzolari (b. 1943; Bologna, Italy). Made in 2016, shortly after the artist moved to Portugal, the 12 paintings featured in Saudades draw on the ethos of Arte Povera to examine the quality of light and sense of peace Calzolari found upon his arrival in Lisbon. A leading figure in the Arte Povera movement, Calzolari is renowned for the material inventiveness and formal originality of his expansive, genre-defying practice. Working with equal fluency in painting, sculpture, installation, and performance, he embraces alchemy and art history while examining the potential of light, the essence of memory, and the poetic character of the natural world and the urban environment. The exhibition is accompanied by a new essay by Karine Marcelle Arneodo, translated from Italian by Joëlle Naïm.

ABOUT ARTISTS : Pier Paolo Calzolari

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Calzolari's work was the subject of a solo exhibition, Casa ideale, at the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Villa Paloma, Monaco in 2023–2024. His work was featured in a survey of Arte Povera, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev for the Bourse de Commerce, Pinault Collection in Paris, in 2024. In 2019, Calzolari was the subject of a major retrospective, Painting as a Butterfly, at the Madre Museum in Naples, Italy, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva and Andrea Villani. Calzolari’s work is included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Sammlung Goetz, Munich, Germany; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; and Palazzo Grassi, Punta della Dogana François Pinault Foundation, Venice, Italy, among others. He has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Documenta IX, Kassel Germany; Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, France, Venice Biennale, Italy; Ca’ Pesaro, Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna, Venice, Italy; the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy; and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France. The artist lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal.