GOTHAM AWARD Exhibition on View at the Italian Cultural Institute, Now thru April 24

Italian Cultural Institute's GOTHAM AWARD Exhibition is now open, featuring 2013 Gotham Prize winners ANDREA CHIESI and ZIMMERFREI (Anna DE MANINCOR, Massimo CAROZZI, Anna RISPOLI).

This award is a project of the Italian Cultural Institute conceived as an opportunity to present the excellence of young Italian contemporary artists in New York. The winners, selected by an international jury, have the opportunity to present their works in a personal exhibition at the Italian Cultural Institute in New York.

By establishing this award, ICI intends to highlight its commitment to the promotion of contemporary young Italian artists, with a careful, rigorous selection process.

ZimmerFrei is an artists' collective formed by the artist and video maker Anna de Manincor (Trento, 1972), the sound designer Massimo Carozzi (Massa, 1967) and the artist and director Anna Rispoli (Bassano del Grappa, 1974). The collective has two headquarters, one in Brussels and one in Bologna - the city where the group was formed in 2000. ZimmerFrei's artistic practices range from video art to documentary films, sound and environmental installations, as well as photography, performances, workshops and public art projects. ZimmerFrei is involved in urban and rural places which are being transformed, where the cities and temporary communities are formed and destroyed.

Andrea Chiesi was born in Modena on the 6th November 1966. Self-taught, Andrea Chiesi trained in the counter-culture of early '80s punk. In 1991 he took part in the Marseilles Biennial for Young Artists of Mediterranean Europe and throughout the '90s worked with the bands Officine Schwartz and Lindo Ferretti's Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti . The works from this period were created with black/violet ink, the subjects dissolving into a liquid place. From the late '90s he began to paint the contemporary landscape, concentrating on industrial structures or places which become abstractions through the process of painting (oils on canvas).

The reception is set for Thursday, March 27, 2014 from 6 - 8 PM. The exhibition will be on view now through April 24, 2014 at the ITALIAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE IN NEW YORK, 686 Park Avenue, New York NY 10065. For more information, call 1 212 879 4242, go online at www.iicnewyork.esteri.it or send an email to iicnewyork@esteri.it.