Lucio Fontana & Carla Prina “Spazio e Forma”

Shin Gallery (66-68 Orchard St.)

[Image: Carla Prina "Composizione Assoluta No. 6" (1942) Oil on Canvas, 40 x 31.5 in.]

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Shin Gallery presents Spazio e Forma: Lucio Fontana & Carla Prina. This historic presentation will be Carla Prina’s first major exhibition of this scale in the United States, and her second show with Shin Gallery. With this visually arresting collection of 20th century works by Italian abstractionist Carla Prina and Argentine-born Italian artist Lucio Fontana, Spazio e Forma demonstrates the immersive depths to which both artists explored the formal elements of abstraction.

This exhibition at Shin Gallery marks Prina’s recent reintroduction to the international market, as it will be running concurrently with an exhibition of collection works at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain. Two works by Prina are currently on view in Room 400.05, acquired by the museum in late 2019 shortly before the institution’s pandemic closure. This is the inaugural display of these works since their addition to the permanent collection. These small-scale but powerful paintings, made in 1951 and 1953 respectively, demonstrate the period of Prina’s career in which she was influenced by the styles of her artist friends: Lucio Fontana, Hans and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Sonia Delaunay, and Joan Miró, the latter of whom shared his studio with her from 1950 to 1951.

Installation view of the exhibiton, “Carla Prian.” at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
Though Prina exhibited extensively in Europe, this will be the first major exhibition of her work to be mounted in the United States, following a small presentation at Shin Gallery in 2019—a feat she always dreamt of achieving throughout her career.