Massimo Agostinelli


Massimo Agostinelli is a Swiss based Italian American artist and activist who uses text, word play and found objects in his works with a particular focus on interventions.

Early life

Agostinelli was born in London, England and grew up in Manhattan, New York. His father is Robert Agostinelli an Italian American financier, his mother is Pascale Gallais a Parisien Greek sculptor. He reportedly attended 14 different schools, battling dyslexia, ADHD, and LLI. Later he graduated from Webster University. Back in London, Agostinelli became an apprentice printmaker and type setter. His step aunt is Victoire de Castellane and his uncle in law is Errol Arendz.

Career

His first art series, Palindromes, consisted of mirror sheets imprinted with iconic images from art, history and popular culture, overlaid with palindromes. His Anagrams examined pop-culture icons by morphing their names into anagrams by means of lenticular printing. In 2016 and 2019 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. In 2017 he participated in "the first Instagram curated art exhibition" by Avant Arte and Unit London and in 2019 New York's two Michelin starred Marea commissioned a diptych 'Palindrome' painting for their Dubai restaurant. Agostinelli is also among the permanent private collection of the Alpina Gstaad as well as a founding patron of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. He has worked with various philanthropic organisations including, AmfAR, UNICEF, Caudwell Children, Innocence In Danger and the Laureus Foundation.

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 an acrylic marker. 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. Artnet praised the institutional critique performance art installation by stating; Agostinelli "turned trash cans into treasure", while Vanity Fair drew reference to Marcel Duchamp.
Agostinelli returned to the fair in 2018 during the VIP opening, placing a basil plant 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. 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.
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 - entitling the work Rat Blase, which is an anagram of 'Art Basel'. 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."
For the 2019 Frieze Art Fair in London, Agostinelli staged his fourth intervention by depositing a 1 tonne block of translucent ice pulled by a Tesla to the entrance of the fair on opening day. Entitling the work 'Freeze', a homophone of 'Frieze'. Additionally, he placed a large ice 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. 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.

Solo exhibitions

  • Palindromes, London, 2014
  • Anagrams, New York, 2015
  • Constellations, Cape Town, 2016
  • Elements, London, 2017
  • Perspectives, Gstaad, 2018
  • Signs, London, 2019