URBS ITALO

“When I photograph a building or a city, I try to see the dynamic movement inside, almost as if they were living bodies,” says Veronica Gaido. The Italian artist, whose first New York solo show just opened at the Italian Consulate General on Park Avenue, has spent the past 20 years traveling the world, with stints in Bangladesh, Japan, India, and Morocco, among others. The exhibition, curated by Maria Vittoria Bavarelli, is named Invisible City, after Italo Calvino’s 1972 seminal book Invisible Cities. The 57 large-scale works in the show however have a more revealing effect: through the seamless interplay of light and exposure, Gaido makes visible the magnetic attraction the urban fabric wields on the human psyche, whether in New York, Beijing, or even in Milan, the city Gaido calls home. It’s a curious dichotomy in Gaido's work that in an essay was once described as “liquid photography.” “[It's] an expression that seeks to indicate the resolution and the overcoming of the potential conflict resulting from the tackling of contrasting arguments.”

“We are thrilled to host this solo exhibition,” says Fabrizio Di Michele, Consul General of Italy in New York. “On the 100th anniversary of the birth of Italo Calvino, her impressionistic works are able to catch the very soul of the ‘invisible cities’ she has focused on in her work. This is especially true for New York, whose dynamic vibe seems to emerge from the twine of lights, colors, and buildings.”