Maria D. Rapicavoli

As a multidisciplinary artist, my artistic background began when I studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Catania, Italy, where I earned my BA in 2001.  Following my undergraduate studies, I took more classes at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London in 2002 and then went on to study at the Goldsmiths University of London where I earned my MFA in 2005. In 2011 I came to NYC to participate in the Whitney Independent Study Program. Since 2016, I have been associated as a member of The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts where I maintain a studio.My teaching experience began in Italy at a young age. In 2003, I taught art history, ceramics, and volcanic stone carving for two years as part of a public program for students aged 17-21. In 2016, I taught porcelain clay modeling classes for adults at the Abrons Art Center in New York.  Students explored the ceramic processes of clay building, firing, under glazing and glazing. From 2014 to 2018, I was leading a full-time preschool art school in Brooklyn. Over the past several years, working as full-time artist, I have been invited to hold several seminars and lectures. I have been exhibiting my work in several international venues, including The High Line in New York City (2023), the Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens (2019) as well as the Westfälischer Kunstverein in Münster, Germany, where in 2021 had a major solo show. In 2022 I had my first career survey at the University of Buffalo Art Galleries, New York. I have also exhibited at Whitechapel Gallery, London; Yerba Buena Center For The Arts, San Francisco; and Palazzo Grassi in Milan, among others. 

During my five years at the Academy of Fine Art in Italy, my studies focused on photography and sculpture with an emphasis on analog photography and darkroom techniques, together with hand carving stones, ceramics, wax sculpting, and casting in the sculpture program. Growing up in a town near the Etna volcano in Sicily, I also learned how to fire and glaze lava stones. The academic course was mostly studio-based as well as partly theoretical. This methodology allowed me to achieve a wide knowledge of art theory together with robust manual skills. I learned how to carve marble and alabaster, both stones that I still widely use in my artistic practice. I approached black-and-white darkroom photography and did several lighting and exposure analog photography experiments, together with composition and landscape projects. The combination of different media has helped me to give form to the content, which calls for a more complex mode of viewer interaction. This has led me to work primarily on multimedia, site-specific installation projects.

At Chelsea College of Art and Design in London, I started to approach digital photography and video art, and I learned filmmaking and video editing. It was during my MFA at the Goldsmiths University of London that I was able to combine my knowledge of traditional sculpting techniques with the use of digital media such as video and photography, with an eventual move towards an installation practice that connected old materials with newer technology. Ultimately, the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York gave me the intellectual references to forge further the structure of what is now my conceptual artistic practice. 

My teaching experience began in Italy at a young age. In 2003, I taught art history, ceramics, and volcanic stone carving for two years as part of a public program for students aged 17-21. In 2016, I taught porcelain clay modeling classes for adults at the Abrons Art Center in New York.  Students explored the ceramic processes of clay building, firing, under glazing, and glazing. 

From 2014 to 2018, I led a full-time preschool art school in Brooklyn. Together with preparing daily classes, I had a variety of administrative and communicative duties that helped me hone my excellent managerial and organizational skills. This job gave me the opportunity to learn how to work under pressure, be flexible, and approach different tasks. It also made me aware of the challenges involved in organizing daily classes for young students. It further allowed me to experience something I have felt passionate about ever since—namely, sharing my love for making art with others. These experiences, particularly the latter, have allowed me to develop my teaching skills and to help students become familiar with and excited about art. 

Over the past several years, working as a full-time artist, I have been invited to hold several seminars and lectures. In 2021, I led a seminar at the Academia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan, Italy, together with art historian Barbara Casavecchia. We discussed how feminist politics are addressed in contemporary art. I also gave a lecture at the Department of Psychology of the University of Catania, Italy, about my work The Other: A Familiar Story, where I investigate the psychoanalytical notions of transgenerational trauma and myth in relation to my work.  Again in 2021, I gave a lecture about my artistic practice at the University of Fine Art in Münster, Germany, as part of the series Münster Lectures. In 2019, I was invited by Professor Teresa Fiore to present a lecture at Montclair State University where I spoke about my project “If You Saw What I Saw,” which consisted of a series of multimedia works developed in the Sicilian village of Corleone, where I investigated the phenomenon of the “Mafia” as a social and economic structure of power. In both 2018 and 2020, I was invited to present my work at BMCC/CUNY as part of the Italian Heritage Month Program. 

I have been exhibiting my work in several international venues, including The High Line in New York City (2023), the Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens (2019) as well as the Westfälischer Kunstverein in Münster, Germany, where in 2021 had a major solo show. I have also exhibited at Whitechapel Gallery, London; Yerba Buena Center for The Arts, San Francisco; and Palazzo Grassi in Milan, among others. 

In 2019, I was awarded the Italian Council grant to produce a work commissioned by The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation in New York. The grant, funded by the Italian Ministry of Culture, allowed me to produce a two-channel video and sculptural installation that is currently being exhibited in various museums in the US and Europe.                  

In 2022 I had my first career survey at the University of Buffalo Art Galleries, New York. Titled Surface Tension and curated by Liz Park, the exhibition showcases my larger practice as a sculptor, media, and installation artist, and photographer, contextualizing recent and past works that explore a constellation of topics such as military control of Sicilian airspace, layers of colonial relations that undergird Mediterranean crossings to and from Europe and Africa, and gender and sexual politics of domestic spaces during a pandemic.

A comprehensive monograph titled Surface Tension has been produced on the occasion of the exhibition. The book is published by Mousse in conjunction with the University of Buffalo Art Galleries, New York, Westfälischer Kunstverein Münster, and the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation for The 8th Floor, New York. It includes essays by Sara Reisman, Wendy Vogel, and Sarah Lookofsky. My work is being exhibited at Fondazione ICA Milano in Italy, at Museo Civico di Castelbuono, also in Italy, and at Westfälischer Kunstverein Münster in Germany. A catalog of my solo show Make This Earth Home was published in 2021 by cijaru in Milan, Italy. The book is about a series of public sculptural interventions I made using local materials for the city of Otranto, Puglia, Italy. 

My artistic background began when I studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Catania, Italy, where I earned my BA in 2001.  Following my undergraduate studies, I took more classes at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London in 2002 and then went on to study at the Goldsmiths University of London, where I earned my MFA in 2005. In 2011 I came to NYC to participate in the Whitney Independent Study Program. Since 2016, I have been associated as a member of The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, where I maintain a studio.