Maurizio Cattelan: Cosa Nostra
Opening reception at S|2: Thursday, November 6th, 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Opening reception at Venus Over Manhattan: Friday, November 7th, 6:00 - 8:00 pm

Venus Over Manhattan
980 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10075
On view: November 7, 2014 - January 10, 2015

Sotheby’s S|2 Gallery
1334 York Avenue
New York, NY 10021
On view: October 30 - November 26, 2014

(New York, NY) – Venus Over Manhattan and Sotheby’s S|2 will present Maurizo Cattelan: Cosa Nostra, the first major exhibition of Maurizio Cattelan’s work since Maurizio Cattelan: All, the 2011-2012 Guggenheim retrospective, and the artist’s subsequent retirement. Curated by Adam Lindemann, this exhibition will showcase a range of works from Cattelan’s career, including many of the artist’s most recognizable iconography that has made him one of the most idiosyncratic and unique of his generation. A direct response to All, Cosa Nostra will utilize a distinct and dramatic exhibition design in each presenting venue, highlighting the artist’s works as powerful, individual objects. At Venus Over Manhattan, the works will exist in isolation; at S|2, the viewer will be immersed in their images.

Alexander Rotter, Co-Head of Sotheby’s Worldwide Contemporary Art Department, commented: “Maurizio Cattelan is one of the most distinctive artists of our time. Whether we are amused, shocked, or even outraged, no one can walk by a Cattelan without appreciating the profound force of his work.”Adam Lindemann commented: “Our title of Cosa Nostra refers to Maurizio’s Italian roots and sensibility, as well as to my confidence in him. It’s also a wink to S|2 and Venus’s collaboration on this exciting double show.”

Cattelan’s body of work forces his viewers to consider their position within the world. His absurdist compositions are unsettling both physically and psychologically. This is most profoundly realized in the works which display taxidermied animals in a variety of environments.

In 1997, Cattelan observed the decrepit, pigeon-filled Italian pavilion of that year’s Venice Biennale prior to the opening. He responded by presenting taxidermied birds sprawled throughout the space in a work entitled Turisti, thus elevating this debris to the level of high art. The exhibition will feature all of the taxidermied animals in Cattelan’s repertoire.

In the Untitled sculpture using a broom and canvas, Cattelan recalls the monochromatic paintings of Piero Manzoni and Lucio Fontana to create a self-supporting balancing act using the weight of the object resting on the canvas to shape the pictorial plane. The artist recalls Duchampian humor by using found objects to question the nature of the art object as well as the nature of the art world much like the Arte Povera master himself. Executed in 2009, one from this edition of three was jointly acquired by the Menil Collection, Houston and the Dallas Museum of Art.

Ave Maria, from 2007, is comprised of three uniformed arms extending bodiless from the wall in a fascist salute. Confronting issues of mass violence, power and conformity, Cattelan’s severed arms are hung on the wall as if a decorative element in a home. Instead of uniforms, the arms don everyday business suits, drawing an analogy between the everyday banality and conformity of office life and fascist Germany.

Throughout his career Cattelan has reveled in the interplay between good and evil, humor and irreverence. With the unnerving wax sculpture Him, the artist confronts us with the head of Adolf Hitler on the kneeling body of a twelve-year old boy, hands clasped, if not quite in prayer then in a gesture of obeisance unlikely in history’s most reviled leader.

For further information about the exhibition and availability, please contact the gallery at info@venusovermanhattan.com