Massimo Agostinelli

Last updated
Massimo Agostinelli
MASSIMO AGOSTINELLI TED X TAMAYO MUSEUM.png
Agostinelli in 2019
Born (1987-09-25) September 25, 1987 (age 37)
London, England
NationalityAmerican, French
Alma mater Webster University (B.A)
George Herbert Walker School of Business & Technology (B.A)
Known for Visual arts / Art intervention
SpouseLuciana Agostinelli (m. 2016)
Father Robert Agostinelli (father)
Relatives Rolf Theiler (father in law)
Website t1p.com

Massimo Agostinelli (born 25 September 1987) is a Switzerland-based Italian American artist, businessman and activist who uses text, [1] word play [2] and found objects in his works with a particular focus on interventions.

Contents

Early life

Agostinelli was born in London, England and grew up in Manhattan, New York. His father is Robert Agostinelli an Italian American billionaire financier, [3] his mother is Pascale Gallais, a Parisian Greek sculptor. [4] Later he graduated from Webster University. [5] Back in London, Agostinelli became an apprentice printmaker and type setter. [6] [7]

Entrepreneurship

Agostinelli started his first internet company Myhomepage.com in 2009 and soon after became an early Tesla shareholder which led him to focus on the Elon Musk ecosystem and is a self proclaimed Musketeer Disciple . Agostinelli manages his family office Think 1st Principles (T1P) based on the core philosophy of “think first principles“. [8] applied to long term Muskonomy investments. [9]

Art Career

His first art series, Palindromes, consisted of mirror sheets imprinted with iconic images from art, history and popular culture, overlaid with palindromes. [10] His Anagrams examined pop-culture icons by morphing their names into anagrams [11] by means of lenticular printing. [12] In 2016 [13] and 2019 [14] Agostinelli was selected by Simon de Pury to exhibit at Dallas Contemporary for the MTV Staying Alive Foundation with Enoc Perez and Marc Quinn curated by Neville Wakefield. [15] In 2017 he participated in "the first Instagram curated art exhibition" by Avant Arte and Unit London [16] and in 2019 Altamarea Group's Michelin starred Marea commissioned [17] a diptych for their flagship New York and Dubai restaurants. [18] Agostinelli is also among the permanent private collection [19] of the Alpina Gstaad [20] as well as a founding patron of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. [21] He has worked with various philanthropic organisations including, AmfAR, [22] UNICEF, [23] Caudwell Children, [24] Innocence In Danger and the Laureus Foundation. [25]

Interventions

To mark the 100th anniversary of Marcel Duchamp's 1917 Fountain, Agostinelli installed a steel trashcan at the 2017 Art Basel fair in Switzerland with the phrase "la plus belle" written on top of it with white acrylic marker. (In French, it means "the most beautiful", but it is also a pun on "la poubelle", French for "the garbage bin".) The bin was positioned in front of the art booths Hauser & Wirth and White Cube. It was hailed; "one of the most engaging works made in 2017" by a member of the Nahmad clan. The original trash can was subsequently exhibited at Galerie von Vertes in Zürich. [3] Artnet praised the institutional critique performance art installation by stating; Agostinelli "turned trash cans into treasure", [26] while Vanity Fair drew reference to Duchamp. [27]

Agostinelli returned to the fair in 2018 during the VIP opening, planting a basil plant [28] in the Gagosian Gallery booth directly in front of a John Chamberlain sculpture flanked by Roy Lichtenstein and Mark Rothko works. As another nod to the Basel/basil pun, he turned the water in the fountain outside the Messeplatz green on opening day. [29] Members of his entourage who witnessed the intervention included, Helly Nahmad, Joseph Nahmad, David Mugrabi and Nellee Hooper, all of which was later dubbed "the green invasion" by art historian Diana Picasso. [30]

In 2019 Agostinelli staged his third consecutive site-specific conceptual art installation at Art Basel. Placing a real dead rat with a tag attached to its tail, reading 'Blase' - entitling the work Rat Blase , which is an anagram of 'Art Basel'. [31] The rat was situated between Beyeler Foundation, David Zwirner Gallery and Helly Nahmad Gallery in reference to the rat race. In an interview with Forbes Agostinelli cited as partial inspiration, Vito Schnabel's exhibition by The Bruce High Quality Foundation, The New Colossus. In addition, Joseph Nahmad stated; "The power of Agostinelli's work is to be able to show the viewer that today's art world has no boundaries." [32]

For the 2019 Frieze Art Fair in London, Agostinelli staged an intervention by depositing a 1 tonne block of translucent ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) pulled by a Tesla Model X to the entrance of the fair on opening day. Entitling the work 'Freeze', a homophone of 'Frieze'. [33] Additionally, he placed another sculpture in the shape of 'XX' in front of White Cube's booth, referencing the 2.0 °C climatic tipping point. The Art Newspaper compared it to Olafur Eliasson's 'Ice Watch' installation outside Tate Modern. [34] Forbes compared it to Andy Goldsworthy's 'Snow Ball' installation. Agostinelli said his initial inspiration derived from examining the Parthenon Frieze from the Acropolis of Athens at the British Museum. [35]

During the 2021 Art Basel Miami Beach fair Agostinelli installed an intervention involving a Batman mask and two inflatable bats - entitling the work ‘Real Bats’ in black acrylic, an anagram of ‘Art Basel’. [36] Written on verso was the simileas blind as a bat’, highlighting the homograph, ‘bats’ and dated in palindromic format 12.2.21 / 12.02.2021. Forbes stated; "Agostinelli is truly dedicated in supporting Musk’s vision and raising awareness through art activism in order to help accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy." [37]

Solo exhibitions

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frieze Art Fair</span> International contemporary art fair

Frieze Art Fair is an annual contemporary art fair first held in 2003 in London's Regent's Park. Developed by the founders of the contemporary art magazine Frieze, the fair has since expanded to include editions in four cities, in addition to acquiring several other art fairs. Following the original Frieze Art Fair, the fair added Frieze Masters (2012), also in London, dedicated to art made before the year 2000; Frieze New York (2012); Frieze Los Angeles (2019); and Frieze Seoul (2022). In 2023, Frieze acquired The Armory Show in New York, and EXPO Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hauser & Wirth</span> Swiss contemporary and modern art gallery

Hauser & Wirth is a Swiss contemporary and modern art gallery.

EXPO CHICAGO is an international contemporary and modern art exhibition held each year in Chicago, Illinois. In 2012, it subsumed the role of Art Chicago, which was Chicago's longest-running major contemporary art exposition, running from 1980 until its cancelation after the 2011 fair due to financial problems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon de Pury</span> Swiss art collector

Abram Simon Léonor Christian de Pury commonly known as Simon de Pury is a Swiss auctioneer, art dealer, curator, collector, dj and photographer In 2002, he acquired the majority control of the auction house Phillips. He has appeared in several television programs and films, including the Bravo network reality series Work of Art: The Next Great Artist. His book The Auctioneer: Adventures in the Art Trade was published in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Agostinelli</span> American businessman (born 1953)

Robert Frank Agostinelli is an American billionaire financier who is the chairman and co-founder of private equity firm Rhône Group. Forbes estimates Agostinelli's net worth to be $1.0 billion, ranking him as the 416th richest American. Agostinelli was ranked #124 amongst the richest people in the United Kingdom by the Sunday Times Rich List in 2012 through to 2018 with a net worth of £689 million. In 2018 Financial News ranked Agostinelli as the 18th richest financier in the United Kingdom.

The New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit collective of professionals working with contemporary art. NADA members include galleries, gallery directors, non-profit art spaces, art advisors, curators, writers, museum and other art professionals from around the world. In addition to hosting year-round programming for its members, NADA hosts two art fairs annually: NADA New York and NADA Miami.

Jordan Wolfson is an American visual artist who lives in Los Angeles. He has worked in video and film, in sculptural installation, and in virtual reality.

Jeanne Beth Greenberg Rohatyn is the owner of Salon 94, an art gallery with three locations in New York City.

Kiang Malingue is a commercial art gallery with premises in Hong Kong and Shanghai, China. It was founded by Edouard Malingue and Lorraine Kiang Malingue as the Edouard Malingue Gallery in 2010. The establishment combines different disciplines, ranging from video and installation to painting and sound, and also actively works with international institutions and curators to present off-site artistic projects and exhibitions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferrari Sheppard</span> American visual artist

Ferrari Sheppard is an American artist. His artistic style is influenced by Willem de Kooning, Cy Twombly and Joan Mitchell, as well as Harlem Renaissance figures like Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden. Sheppard is also a member of the hip-hop duo Dec 99th, alongside Yasiin Bey. The duo's album, December 99th, was released in 2016. Sheppard lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

Eva Presenhuber is an Austrian-Swiss art dealer. She is the owner of Galerie Eva Presenhuber, an international contemporary art gallery with spaces in Zürich, Switzerland, and Vienna, Austria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Frank</span> Dutch-American painter

Jan Frank is an American artist-curator based in Manhattan.

Hillel "Helly" Nahmad is an independent British art dealer of Syrian descent.

Helly Nahmad is an American art dealer and art collector. In 2000, he founded the Helly Nahmad Gallery in Manhattan, New York, which holds several fine art exhibitions each year featuring artists such as Pablo Picasso, Chaïm Soutine, Francis Bacon, and Giorgio de Chirico.

Massimo De Carlo is an Italian art dealer, with gallery spaces in Milan, London, Hong Kong and Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ingrid Dee Magidson</span> American painter

Ingrid Dee Magidson is an American artist known for her use of combining industrial materials, collage, paint and Renaissance and Baroque images into transparent layers or shadow boxes. Influenced by Joseph Cornell, Salvador Dalí and the Surrealists in her use of antique objects, butterflies and insect specimens. She is largely self-taught, but is heavily involved in contemporary art and in contact with many well known contemporary artists.

Markus Dochantschi is a German-born architect based in New York. He is a registered architect in the United Kingdom and Germany, as well as a member of the American Institute of Architects. As the founder and principal of studioMDA, a New York–based, multidisciplinary design firm, Dochantschi has been recognized as one of the world's preeminent designers of art and cultural spaces. Dochantschi and his firm have designed more than thirty galleries, and over 200 international art booths and exhibitions, earning Dochantschi the title of "the Art World's New Go-To Architect” in 2017. The firm has also designed institutional buildings, auction houses, and private residences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mai 36 Galerie</span> Contemporary art gallery in Zürich, Switzerland

Mai 36 Galerie is an international contemporary art gallery, located in Zürich. The gallery was founded in 1987 by Victor Gisler.

The Paris International Contemporary Art Fair is a contemporary art event that occurs in Paris.

1:54 is an annual contemporary African art fair held in London during the October Frieze Week since 2013. It was organized to improve the representation of contemporary African art in worldwide exhibitions, and is the foremost art fair dedicated to contemporary African art in the primary art market. By 2016, the show had become three times the size of the original exhibition with 130 artists represented. A spin-off, pop-up show, 1:54 NY, has been held annually in New York City during the May Frieze New York since 2015. A third location, in Marrakech, began in 2018. Critics have described 1:54 as a highlight of the Frieze event, and wrote that the show's publicity for contemporary African art outweighs the issues of lumping disparate geographic traditions together. The fair's representation from African galleries has improved as the international market for African art expands.

References

  1. "Emin, Shrigley and Basquiat star in exhibition about art and words". Evening Standard. 2019-05-23. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  2. "17 Up and Coming Artists on Instagram Who Could Make You Rich". Culture Trip. 24 October 2017.
  3. 1 2 "How a Roguish Artist Set Out to Prank the Art World With an Art Basel Trash Can—and a Little Help From the Nahmads". Artnet News. 5 September 2017.
  4. "About Time You Met: Massimo Agostinelli". About Time Magazine. 27 April 2017.
  5. "Hold Fast Arts Club to Show Some Daring Art at Venue Cafe Royal Hotel London". Widewalls. 11 December 2015.
  6. "The text artist Massimo Agostinelli". Fad Magazine. 21 May 2018.
  7. "Maxwell Hosts Massimo Agostinelli's 'Anagrams' Exhibit at Hoerle-Guggenheim Gallery". Observer. 23 October 2015.
  8. "Massimo Agostinelli – Cee Wealth" . Retrieved 2024-11-12.
  9. Principles, Think 1st. "Think 1st Principles". Think 1st Principles. Retrieved 2024-11-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. "Debut UK exhibition by Massimo Agostinelli at Hus Gallery, London, sells out on opening night". Spear's. 26 May 2015.
  11. "Massimo Agostinelli's Clever Word-Play". Whitewall Magazine. 3 November 2015.
  12. "Massimo Agostinelli Exhibition "Anagrams" Unveils Dual Meanings of Phrases". Widewalls. 22 October 2015.
  13. "MTV RE:DEFINE in Partnership with de PURY". Paddle8. 13 April 2016.
  14. "MTV RE:DEFINE 2019 Art Auction & Gala". de PURY. 30 March 2019.
  15. "MTV RE:DEFINE Curated by Neville Wakefield at Dallas Contemporary". MTV RE:DEFINE. 13 April 2016.
  16. "London Exhibition Explores the Phenomenon of Art Popularized on Instagram". Artnet News. 11 January 2017.
  17. "Altamarea Group Announces Their Entrance To The UAE With Michelin-Starred, New York Restaurant, Marea, At The Dubai International Financial Center, DIFC". PR Newswire. 2 April 2019.
  18. "Marea - a two Michelin star New York restaurant just made its Dubai debut. From New York City to Dubai". Esquire. 25 April 2019.
  19. "Beyond the expected". Issuu. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  20. "THE ALPINA GSTAAD N°3". Issuu. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  21. "Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa". Zeitz MOCAA. 1 January 2018.
  22. "MASSIMO AGOSTINELLI Heart|Earth, 2017 - CharityStars". www.charitystars.com. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  23. ""Goes Around Comes Around" by Massimo Agostinelli - CharityStars". www.charitystars.com. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  24. "Maddox gallery raises over £200 000 for Caudwell Children and a rather royal visit..." Barnebys.co.uk. 2016-11-08. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  25. "Am Kap der Guten Hoffnung - Spectacular Hideaways". www.ourglorioushomes.com. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  26. "From the Finale to Salvador Dalí's Surreal Paternity Saga to Thomas Campbell's Starry Rise and Fall: The Best and Worst of the Art World This Week". Artnet News. 10 September 2017.
  27. "The fascinating French saga of fashion that made an appearance at the Dior party". Vanity Fair. 23 November 2017.
  28. "All art-loving celebrities flock to Art Basel". Schweizer Illustrierte. 14 June 2018.
  29. "The Art Market Is Hoping a Crush of Post-Lockdown Art Fairs Will Come to the Rescue This Fall. But Many Collectors Say They Won't Go". Artnet. 29 April 2020.
  30. "A Punning Artist Turned Art Fair Prankster Plants a Pot of 'Art Basil' at Gagosian's Booth". Artnet News. 15 June 2018.
  31. "Art Basel diary: Robert Indiana's spooky sculpture and a rogue rat. Plus, would Marcel Duchamp approve of a snow-globe urinal?". The Art Newspaper. 14 June 2019.
  32. "Massimo Agostinelli On Breaking Boundaries With His Latest Piece Of Performance Art, 'Rat Blase'". Forbes. 21 June 2019.
  33. "In the latest of his interventions Massimo Agostinelli Deposits Blocks of Ice at Frieze London". FAD Magazine. 3 October 2019.
  34. "Art world faces up to the reality of climate crisis / Many dealers are beginning to look for local solutions to global climate emergency". The Art Newspaper. 3 October 2019.
  35. "Magnificent Massimo Agostinelli Strikes Again At Frieze London 2019". Forbes. 4 October 2019.
  36. "Serial interventionist Massimo Agostinelli goes all BATS at Art Basel Miami Beach". FAD Magazine. 2021-12-06. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
  37. Waga, Nel-Olivia. "Conceptual Artist Massimo Agostinelli Shows His First NFT Intervention At Art Basel Miami Beach 2021". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
  38. "Between the Lines exhibition: Works from Tracey Emin and David Shrigley to feature in show on wordplay". The Evening Standard. 23 May 2019.
  39. "Signs Solo Show By Massimo Agostinelli". Unit London. 1 March 2019.