VARESE.- Sculptress Maria Cristina Carlini is holding a solo exhibition curated by Flaminio Gualdoni in Villa Recalcati, a representative location of the sculptural tradition of Varese, from July 22nd to August 26th.

In the park stand her monumental sculptures, while inside the villa we can admire her large and medium-sized works, made of different materials, ranging from Corten steel to resin, including stoneware, wood and iron.

The exhibition features several new works now on display for the first time and specially made by the artist on the occasion of this event, along with other works created between 2004 and 2012, which are representative of the intense artistic career and long sculptural path of Maria Cristina Carlini.

Among the new works made in 2012 we can admire sculptures such as “Soglia” (“Threshold”, Corten steel, h. 370 cm), and “Bosco” (“Wood”, 19 elements, iron, h. 400 cm).

Works which particularly stand out are the evocative “Gaza”, from 2004 (stoneware, measuring 60x90x40 cm), “Stracci” (“Rags”), from 2006 (stoneware and iron, measuring 180x230x170 cm), “Muro” (“Wall”), from 2007 (stoneware and iron, measuring 200x300x20 cm), “Giardino di pietra” (“Stone Garden”), from 2008 (11 items, steel and resin, measuring 310x600x1600 cm).

The curator of the exhibition, Flaminio Gualdoni, writes in the catalogue text: “The look that the artist asks for is not of admiration and wonder, and sharing, participation that she triggers is a sort of very individual peer-to-peer sharing: as the onlooker’s look no longer masters the work as a whole, the relationship it establishes lies on a complex experience of the place, a strong degree of physicality - the body of the sculpture reverberating the author’s corporeality, the body of the viewer, in the unifying space - which activates high-gradient emotional peaks”.

The exhibition, organized and conceived by the Province of Varese, in its seat, is part of the event curated by Flaminio Gualdoni entitled “Scultori a Villa Recalcati” (“Sculptors at Villa Recalcati”), whose three-year exhibition cycle is now concluded by Maria Cristina Carlini – the only female presence.

The solo exhibitions of the three-year period include: Gio’ Pomodoro, Giancarlo Sangregorio, Tavernari Vittorio, Nino Cassani and Maria Cristina Carlini, artists linked to the territory by birth and training, and are the prelude to the establishment of a permanent collection of sculptures in the park of Villa Recalcati.

Maria Cristina Carlini began working with ceramics in the early seventies in Palo Alto, California, and then expressed herself with the use of different materials such as stoneware, iron, Corten steel, wood and resin for the realization of models and sculptures, sometimes monumental.

The artistic path of Maria Cristina Carlini includes solo and group exhibitions in numerous international private and public venues. In Italy, one of her most recent exhibitions include: the monumental complex of the Royal Palace in Turin (2005) and the National Museum of Villa Pisani at Strà - Venice (2005), the State Archives in Rome (2006), the National Library in Cosenza (2008), the State Archives in Milan (2008), the International Biennial of Sculpture at Racconigi Castle (2010), and the Archives of the Roman School (2011-2012).

Several events held abroad are worth mentioning, namely: Paris, followed by Madrid (2009), housed in the streets of their historic centres the artist’s monumental sculptures. In 2010, one of her monumental works was permanently installed in front of the Italian Embassy in Beijing; inside the Forbidden City, a solo exhibition was opened, and she participated in the Beijing Biennale. In Shanghai, two of her monumental works were presented in conjunction with the World Expo 2010.

She also exhibited in Denver, in the campuses of Auraria and of the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, as well as in France, on the promenade at Cap D'Agde.
In Miami in 2011 one of her largest monumental works, “Icaro” (“Icarus”), inaugurated the new Sculpture Park of the Church of Corpus Christi.

Monumental sculptures of the artist are installed permanently at the Municipal Museums of Pesaro, the Central State Archives in Rome - EUR, at the Court of Accounts of Milan, at the new Milan Fair in Rho, in Paris, in China - in Beijing, Jinan, Tianjin and Shanghai, Sculpture Park, and in the United States - in Denver and Miami.