Galleria Raffaella Cortese is delighted to present three solo exhibitions by renowned American artists Simone Forti, Joan Jonas, and Kiki Smith, opening on February 16, 2023. Each of their decades-long practices of experimentation across different media can be united through their common interests in and study of the human body, the animal kingdom, and movement as a vital force. Animals in particular have inspired a number of Simone Forti’s works across photographs, drawings, and performances since the late 1960s; they have made appearances in nearly all of Joan Jonas’ multimedia installations and have been the subject of countless drawings of hers; and finally, cats and pigeons are the main protagonists of the sculptures and drawings exhibited as part of Kiki Smith’s latest show at the gallery.
The title of Simone Forti’s second solo show at Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Distant Lands, expresses a desire for convergence and exchange between Italy and California. Born in Florence in 1935, Simone and her family emigrated to Los Angeles in 1938, where she later studied with choreographer Anna Halprin and has since spent most of her life. After her association with the Judson Dance Theater—a collective of dancers, composers, and visual artists who performed at the Judson Memorial Church in Downtown Manhattan in the early 1960s—and realizing her acclaimed Dance Constructions, in 1968, during the artist’s time in Rome, Forti first took interest in the movements and gestures of the animals she saw at the zoo. It was during that same year that the artist spent in Rome that she also made photographs of the cats lounging in the archeological area of Largo Argentina, which is still to this day the permanent residence of many cats.
Installation views
