Leah Modigliani

Rome, 1947, March 2020

Opens: Friday, March 6, 2020. Runs through March 29, 2020.

Press contact: Amy Hicks, amyhicks@udel.edu

This March Grizzly Grizzly premieres Rome, 1947, a solo exhibition by Leah Modigliani. Her new work is made in response to our contemporary political climate to be exhibited in the midst of the democratic primaries in this important election year. For Rome, 1947, Modigliani installs a large-scale puppet of a controversial public figure, an archival photograph, and a political protest poster. She takes her inspiration from a 1947 press photograph that shows Italians protesting Premier de Gasperi’s Christian Democratic Government because of its anti-communist stance and financial ties to the United States. Liberty is bound to the Christian Democratic crossed-shield, and de Gasperi is depicted as a puppet manipulated by Wall Street. Of her version Modigliani states, “Trump takes the place of de Gasperi, but instead of Wall Street he is seen as a puppet of his own narcissistic impulses. Liberty remains trussed to conservative values that, alongside Trump’s ego, constitute the most significant assault to American democracy in decades.” 

Modigliani’s work moves fluidly between art practice, academic research, and criticism. Each discipline is an equal partner in a creative practice that draws upon the history and methods of fine art, art history, critical theory, cultural studies, geography, and anthropology. Through sculpture, photography, installation and performance, she re-enacts and re-makes other people’s political actions, objects, and speeches from times lost or forgotten. While retaining as much of the original intent as possible, these productions are modified to reflect her own biography, and to highlight the social values she identifies with. This performative pedagogy, which Modigliani has sometimes called “critical plagiarism,” is enabled through archival research and her commitment to interdisciplinary methodologies of making and thinking. Modigliani’s new speech acts testify to her solidarity with the history of and ongoing collective struggle for equity and social justice.  

The artist will be present at the opening reception.  

2020 programming is supported by Added Velocity which is administered by Temple Contemporary at Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University and funded by the William Penn Foundation.