Artwork by Natalie Lanese, "Study 3 for Camofleur", gouache on panel

HOT TOPIC

Upcoming DUE DATE - Jan 31 - for Community Engagement Grant

Casa Regis is very hopeful, fingers crossed, that Community Engagement will pick another candidate to sponsor for a 2024 summer residency.

However, before getting ahead of ourselves with future artists and events, let me first share with you some important achievements of which we are mighty proud.

GUESTS, GRANTS, & GRATITUDE

Introducing the accomplished artists/writers who were in residence at Casa Regis this last summer:

While passing through Milan, Dillon sought out a wetplate photographer and had his portrait made. I love it. Doesn't it make you want to search out your nearest wetplate photographer?

WE HAD THREE IMPORTANT SPONSORS:

SPONSORS OFFER PRECIOUS SUPPORT AND WE ARE THANKFUL!

A little BIT OF SHOWING off

While here with us in Italy, Kaitlin got the news that her poem was to be published in the prestigious magazine Poetry Foundation  

Epitaph as My Mother’s Daughter By Kaitlin Rizzo

There is no beach

that is not my mother. There are no stars

that are not unshaken disasters, no disasters

that aren’t unlatched stars. Waves

deploy like her fists. This is where it comes from,

this rhythm of falling that breaks

into less than cosmetic parts.

There is no lipstick on the wind. In the air

on the wind. She never hit me hard enough

to break my face. We blow forward,

we break forward. I’m sorry, the world

makes more sense without her.

Source: Poetry (July/August 2023)

next EXHIBITION

at Casa Regis!!!

Photo by Silvia Gaffurini, "Lampada della Risorsa #4"

THE LIMITS AND OUTERLIMITS OF LINE

April 21 - May 26, 2024

Group Exhibition of Contemporary Art
curated by L. Mikelle Standbridge

Casa Regis - Center for Culture and Contemporary Art proudly hosts the group exhibition "The Limits and Outerlimits of Line", on display from April 21 to May 26, 2024. The artworks span multiple mediums, ranging from fiber art, to Land Art, to works on paper, to installation to performance. Utilizing the eight exhibition spaces and the garden, Italian and international artists will be featured, with representation from Iran, Holland, Finland, China, The United States, and of course Italy. Each artist, with a meditation on their medium of choice has been invited to address the theme, which could either be a straightforward encounter with the gesture of a line, or a visual pun, or a metaphysical investigation into knowing or defining tout court.

The eleven artists participating in this exhibition include:

Italian, photographer, Silvia Gaffurini; American photographer, Tyler Green; Chinese, but American based, sculptor, Zhiheng Gong; Italian installation/conceptual artist, Eleonora Gugliotta; Finish textile artist, Suvi Hanninen; Dutch textile artist, Anneke Klein; American painter/collage/installation artist, Natalie Lanese; Italian painter and performance-video artist, Gianluigi Maria Masucci; Italian performance artist, Andrea Mori; Iranian painter/collage artist, Ashkan Sanei; Italian Land Art artist, Ivano Troisi.

Hours: Each Sunday 3-6PM or by appointment.

Closing event: May 26, 3-6pm.

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?  Casa Regis

thanks to grant writing by Arch.Luisa Bocchietto

got its 2nd CONTRIBUTION from 

Thank you !

This support is dedicated to some new gutters, protecting the foundation from humidity and replacing the plaster where missing on the facade. Casa Regis, with blood, sweat, and tears, matched the donation amount. You should be seeing some scaffolding this spring!

Puzzle solved - weird

and exciting news

At Casa Regis, there are paintings on the woodwork and while a bit faded, you can still make out the scene. However, this one painting, I had no idea what it represented. I thought maybe a liberal interpretation of the Horse of Troy, as people were inside a horse (which I should have noticed is actually a bull). But recently a very astute visitor, Marcello, gave me the actual reference to the legend of Phalaris Malevus' Brazen Bull: torture device from Ancient Grecce.

Now with this key, I was able to find on the internet several depictions referencing the tyrant Falaride from Acragas (what was then Greece circa 500 BC but now is the town of Agrigento in Italy, on the Sicilian coast). Known for being one of the cruelest to his enemies, Falaride relied on this invention which comprised a bronze bull into which a live person was put, and then a fire was lit under the bull. The acoustics inside the bull were designed to function like a horn, so the person's screams would be emitted through the nostrils of the bull.

So the bigger question than what the painting referenced became, WHO would have painted such a scene on their living room wall? The only answer I have been able to discern so far from talking with locals is that the family Regis was an educated noble family and would have been familiar with literary references of the times and used them as inspiration. Dante does refer to the bronze bull torture device in the Divine Comedy, in the Inferno. But still!!

Does the weirdness end there? Not quite. When searching on the internet for depictions of the scene, I did in fact find several, but it is nevertheless a pretty obscure legend. So I was surprised to find how marketing had already stepped in to make a profit off the torture scene, in the form of a weekend tote bag! I would like to call up Barbara Kruger and get her thoughts on medieval drawings of Ancient Greek torture devices as today's fashion trends.

Be part of a RETREAT

THIS SUMMER

at

Villa Emma

EMAIL US

Thank you for not just following our news but being our news.

L. Mikelle Standbridge

email:infocasaregis@gmail.com

WWW.CASAREGIS.ORG