Amalia Piccinini "Wearing the Silence: A Painting Installation"

Amalia Piccinini is a young painter born and raised in the S. Benedetto del Tronto area, in a region called 'Marche', Italy. After her graduation from the Academy of Fine Arts in Macerata, Italy, in 1997, and several important exibitions, among which in 'Chiostro del Bramante', Rome, she decided to move to New york two years ago.


You were born in S. Benedetto del Tronto area, Italy. How was your life back there compared to your daily routine here in New York? Are you missing something in particular, a part from your friends and family? Do you miss the Italian sea?

The rhythm of my day here is very different than back in Italy, where I could not find the confrontation with other cultures so different than mine, the variety and quantity of artists with whom I can exchange thoughts and inspiration.

Moreover, New York is very active, and you can participate to a number of events, openings, museums, shows on a daily basis. Numerous associations and scholarships you can try to obtain are also important for an artist like me. Of course I miss S.Benedetto’s sea, and also its splendid light in a beautiful sunny day.

What is it, in particular, that convinced you to come to New York?

I simply felt that in Italy a real interest in contemporary art is missing at the moment, at least compared to the U.S., New York in particular. In this city I found the right respect for painting, and also a few more possibilities for my professional development.

Did you find the right inspiration and energy in the city, or also frustration and disappointment?

Since the very beginning I got a very good vibe from the city, and the right energy. Each single day something or someone is the source for my inspiration, a filter for my imagination, an input to introspection.


I experience a positive frustration due to the never-ending confrontation with talented artists coming from the entire world, with their specific innovative ideas, and the great competition that I found in galleries.

Until now you have studied here in the U.S. at the Art Students League of New York. What did this school offer to you?

I think that the Art Students League is a school, or better, a ‘studio experience’, essential for an artist’s professional development. Here I found the knowledge of many international artists, of all ages and social extractions… it’s like having many schools put together, many ideas, visions of life and the world, even souls, that mingle and mix among one another. I find each day pieces of art and talents, personalities that oblige me to question my own talent.

With whom have you studied in particular, which instructors?

I am studying with Bruce Dorfman and Larry Poons, two very different artists, personalities, and approaches to art. Through their opposite way of criticizing and discussing my work I find the right balance, something that works for me, and I get a great energy from both.

Do you think that your experience here in New York has helped your carrier? If you ever get to go back to Italy, do you think that your experience here is going to add some value to your work?


I really do think that my experience here is going to open a few doors…I have no doubt that my work have increased their power, and their value, especially for myself, for the internal journey that I have initiated here.

Concerning your paintings in particular, some of your latest works are definitely abstract. What should they tell us about your feelings?

It’s very difficult to define this for me. I feel like I have this mental process in my head, … my mind is alert, sees things, hears things, elaborates things, and this is how common objects become extremely interesting and particular for me.

I feel like I see in these regular elements of my day something special other people just can’t grasp.


Your first paintings since you arrived here had as a theme the travel, the train, the subway. Is this choice in anyway related to your leaving your country, in order to embrace a new culture, and possibly ‘homeland’?
Your ‘trains’, which from the beginning have expressed the idea of movement, dynamism, high speed, and possibly change have gradually lost their definition, becoming almost blurred, and more and more abstract. Is it because ‘you made your self at home’ here in New York, feeling this idea of travelling less yours, being more settled? Has this state of mind been replaced by a melancholy?


The idea of travelling and the concept of train are not new to me. These have been the themes for my paintings for many years. Only, this whole issue turned into the ‘subway’, because that’s my idea of train here. Since the very beginning I have been intrigued by the subway, as being a dimension per sé, a city below the city.

These subways have subsequently evolved into a new series of ‘stati d’animo’, states of mind, feelings, defined through an obsession for light and color and a renewed need for abstraction.

Many of your paintings are actually monochromatic, with a persistent obsession for many shades of the color green. What is the reason for this choice? Maybe the idea of the ‘lost’ Italian Sea, which now is so distant?


My insistence on green has developed through a very powerful feeling, almost physical for this color, which is by the way difficult…I wasn’t able to use any other color for my paintings for 3 or 4 months. In a sense, I was seeing, hearing, and being silent through green.


The sea you say?... I don’t know about that, usually you can always find it in my paintings, it’s a feeling on its own.

"Wearing the Silence: A Painting Installation" From 2008-06-06 To 2008-06-24
Tenri Cultural Institute of New York (43 A West 13th street). www.terni.org