DR. CORNELIA LAUF

Art historian, independent curator, and writer, based in Rome, Italy.

Specialties include monographs, collection-building, custom curatorial projects, artist’s books, artist management, expertise in certificates by artists, and design/applied art by artists.

The curatorial process is shown in a printed poster depicting the curriculum of Cornelia Lauf, designed in 2006, by Gianpaolo D’Ambrosio.

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04 SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

INDEX

Universal Gardens
Villa of Livia, Prima Porta, Ministry of Culture, Rome
[2019 - ongoing]

Curated by Cornelia Lauf
Production by Bernard Anson Silj, Karolina Liusikova, Love Italy
Catalogue texts by Giulia Caneva, Crispin Corrado, Margaret Kneller, Nic Liney, Giuseppe Morganti, K. Sara Myers, Flavia Prestininzi, and others, edited by Sztuka I Dokumentacja, Gdansk, Poland

Archaeological, botanical, and contemporary art project undertaken with the support of Ministry of Culture, Museo Nazionale Romano, Soprintendenza Speciale di Roma, as well as private sponsors including Archaeologia Arborea, and Factum Arte.
The subject is the villa and farm of Livia and Augustus, located in Prima Porta. Through a restoration of the natatio with its mosaics, the reconstruction of the famous underground triclinium chamber by means of the in situ restoration of the ancient Roman garden, and a seamless contemporary intervention into the fabric of the ancient mosaic, the site aims to be requalified, providing much-needed lymph to a peripheral area of Rome. In addition, the location will reclaim its status as an origin garden, whose profound lessons on biodiversity, land governance, and symbiosis between man and nature, are as important a legacy than any cult of personality tied to its owners. Images courtesy Museo Nazionale Romano, Sztuka i Dokumentacja with Alexandra Mir, Barbara Prenka, Giuseppe Morganti.
Image 1 courtesy Museo Nazionale Romano, photo Simona Sansonetti and Valeria Intini
Image 2 courtesy Szutka i Dokuentacja and Alexandra Mir
Image 3 courtesy artist Barbara Prenka and Arch. Giuseppe Morganti
Image 4 courtesy Arch. Giuseppe Morganti

Colour in Contextual Play. An Installation by Joseph Kosuth
Neon in Contextual Play. Joseph Kosuth and Arte Povera
Mazzoleni Gallery, London - Turin
[2017 - 2018]

Curated by Cornelia Lauf for Mazzoleni Gallery, London and Turin
Production by Mazzoleni Gallery with The Culture Broker, London
Catalogue by NERO, concept by Cornelia Lauf, design by Joseph Kosuth, edited by Mira Dimitrova

Colour in Contextual Play. An Installation by Joseph Kosuth, curated by Cornelia Lauf, exhibited in the London premises of the Mazzoleni Gallery includes works by Enrico Castellani, Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein, Piero Manzoni, and Kosuth himself. This project runs concurrently with the exhibition, Neon in Contextual Play. Joseph Kosuth and Arte Povera devised especially for Mazzoleni Turin and focused on the use of neon in the work of Joseph Kosuth and selected Arte Povera artists, including Mario Merz, Pier Paolo Calzolari and Emilio Prini.

Wall to Wall: Carpets by Artists
MOCA-Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland
[2016]

curated by Cornelia Lauf
Production by Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland
Catalogue published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König
Introduction by Jill Snyder, essays by Cornelia Lauf and Germano Celant

Photos Jerry Birchfield

Organized by MOCA Cleveland and curated by Cornelia Lauf, Wall to Wall: Carpets by Artists featured work from a wide cross-section of contemporary artists and their weaving partners, taking as its point of departure a history of art rather than a history of medium. The exhibition posited an overhaul of how textiles are viewed as new generations of studio artists invigorate this practice, once considered “minor art,” into a premiere location for artistic inquiry. The carpet is used as a pedagogical device to show how artists can integrate deep philosophical and formal resolutions into the very nature of an object and its material.

Artists: Faig Ahmed, Polly Apfelbaum, Stefano Arienti, Alan Belcher, Guillaume Bijl, Pierre Bismuth, Alighiero Boetti, Mircea Cantor, Flavio Favelli, Liam Gillick, Christian Jankowski, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Alexandra Kehayoglou, Joseph Kosuth, Ken Lum, Marilyn Minter, Jonathan Monk, Sarah Morris, Paulina Olowska, Jorge Pardo, Richard Prince, Julião Sarmento, Nedko Solakov, Rosemarie Trockel, Franz West, Christopher Wool, Heimo Zobernig (and more, in catalogue).

Cerith Wyn Evans

Luigi Ontani

Stefano Arienti

Gabriel Orozco

Mario Airò

Heimo Zobernig

Flavio Favelli

A Very Light Art
Ca' Rezzonico, Musei Civici, Venice [2013]

Curated by Cornelia Lauf for Musei Civici Veneziani
Production by Caterina Tognon, Venice
Catalogue by Cornelia Lauf, published by Kaleidoscope, edited by Veronica Bellei and Camilla Salvaneschi, with research contribution and support of Caterina Tognon
Photos Francesco Allegretto, Pamela Breda

Digital catalogue

A Very Light Art, a group exhibition dedicated to art and artisanry, featured work by seven artists who master space and material in relation to context. A collection of lamps, mobiles, and décor objects fused effortlessly with the surroundings of Venice's marvelous Ca' Rezzonico, the city's museum of 18th century art. Working together with Musei Civici Venezia, the city museum consortium, and its director, Dr. Gabriella Belli, curator Dr. Cornelia Lauf sought to showcase contemporary art in smooth continuation of its ancient function. Art as decor, or as altarpiece - the artist as artisanal craftsman and master of ceremonies - was brought to life in an elegant and simple scenario conceived specifically for a premiere European collection of painting and decorative arts. Rising to the challenge, seven artists matched the era of greatest splendor in the history of the Serenissima.

Artists:
Mario Airò, Stefano Arienti, Flavio Favelli, Luigi Ontani, Gabriel Orozco, Cerith Wyn Evans, Heimo Zobernig.

Heimo Zobernig [solo show]
Galleria Civica, Modena [2008]

curated by Cornelia Lauf
essays by Angela Vettese, Laura Bruni, Mario Ciaramtaro, Helmut Draxler
Catalogue by OneStarPress, edited by Cornelia Lauf

Immersive monographic installation featuring one of Europe’s leading artists. A retrospective that simultaneously became a new work, involving the reuse of earlier constructs as formal and conceptual Readymades.

Selected images from catalogue, a reprint and adaptation of a prior artist’s book.

Camera Oscura
San Casciano dei Bagni, Siena
[1993-2001]

curated by Cornelia Lauf
Production by Silvestro Baraldo, Daniela Boni, Federica Damiani, Joseph Kosuth

Catalogue by Revolver, edited by Cornelia Lauf, designed by Ade Hauser Lacour

Founded and directed Camera Oscura, a micro-museum located in San Casciano dei Bagni, to showcase art, craft, and agriculture. Exhibitions included display of ironwork, wild grasses, antique roses, lace, contemporary art, milking stools, travertine, Baroque books on thermal waters, ceramics, and much more. Eduational and musical programming, with intense participation of local populace, serving as a major economic catalyst and development tool to this Tuscan hilltop village

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