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.

Visual cv [front]

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05 PUBLICATIONS

INDEX

Alexandra Kehayoglou
Verlag der Buchhandlung Franz und Walther König
[2024]

Edited by Cornelia Lauf, designed by Luc Derycke, with production coordination by José Huidobro.
Texts by: Alan Belcher, Rodrigo Cañete, Tita Giese, Pedro de Llana, Cornelia Lauf, Christiane Löhr, Frank Loy, Shirin Melikova, Christian Phillipp Müller, Alexis Rockman, Dries Van Noten

A major publication on artist weaver Alexandra Kehayoglou. Featuring voices from the visual arts, activism, and textile worlds, this monograph is a port of entry into the work of the world’s perhaps most important textile artist. Kehayoglou pictures the vanishing landscapes of her native South America through ancestral skills passed on by her Mediterranean forefathers, An activist in water and land preservation, in river reclamation, prairie and wetlands defense, as well as coastal preservation, Kehayoglou uses images, craft, and forms from nature and her loom to engage consciousness and inspire action.

Launched at Onassis Stegi Foundation, Athens, Greece, July 2024

Emilio Prini: A Visual Bibliography
Nero Editions
[2018]

Edited and text by Cornelia Lauf
Editorial coordination and research Maria Giovanna Virga

A collection of visual incursions by Italian artist Emilio Prini (1943–2016) in dozens of exhibition catalogs and print publications over the course of five decades. Meticulously researched, and yet necessarily incomplete, this book is a glimpse into the subtlety with which Prini turned each engagement with the world of ideas into a joust for mastery over space, time, and form.

Colour in Contextual Play: An Installation by Joseph Kosuth, with Works by Enrico Castellani, Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein, Joseph Kosuth, Piero Manzoni.
Nero Editions
[2017]

Neon in Contextual Play: Joseph Kosuth and Arte Povera
Nero Editions
[2018]

Invited by Mazzoleni Gallery to conceive an exhibition, Colour in Contextual Play. An installation by Joseph Kosuth,was conceived and curated by Cornelia Lauf, and installed in at Mazzoleni London, in turn leading to a second declination, Neon in Contextual Play: Joseph Kosuth and Arte Povera devised especially for Mazzoleni Turin. It featured the use of neon in the work of Joseph Kosuth and selected Arte Povera artists Mario Merz (1925-2003), Pier Paolo Calzolari (b. 1943) and Emilio Prini (1943-2016).

Colour in Contextual Play juxtaposed monochrome works by Castellani, Fontana, Klein and Manzoni with works from Kosuth’s 1968 series ‘Art as Idea as Idea’. This series made a conceptual investigation into the relationship between words, ideas and objects. It comprised photographs of dictionary definitions of words including ‘meaning’ and ‘idea’. For ‘Colour in Contextual Play’ Kosuth created a site-specific installation that placed the examples ‘white’, ‘black’, ‘grey’, ‘red’, ‘green’, ‘yellow’ and ‘violet’ in company with works by the other artists utilising those colours.

The artist selection in Colour in Contextual Play was the suggestion of Emilio Prini. Lauf initially invited Prini to mount a monographic exhibition for Mazzoleni London, but in typical fashion, Prini counter-proposed a quintet of artists including himself. A few months before his untimely passing in 2016, Prini requested that Joseph Kosuth, a long-standing colleague, replace him. In the catalogue, Cornelia Lauf has stated: “Thus, one of the most important proponents of the Arte Povera group extended the notion of Italian art, to show the transnational dialogue uniting artists, evidenced also by his selection of Yves Klein.” Prini’s lifelong adherence to subtraction and economy distinguish him as one of the most radical, though least-known, members of Arte Povera, a movement identified by the influential art historian and curator, Germano Celant, in 1967. Prini often reflected on colour himself, confirming this exhibition’s theme as a fitting theoretical matrix uniting all of the artists.

The exhibitions are accompanied by fully illustrated books: one dedicated to the Colour section, and one dedicated to the Neon installation. This double volume publication, designed by Joseph Kosuth, is published by NERO and includes essays by Cornelia Lauf, an interview with Joseph Kosuth, and selected artist writings with texts both in English and Italian.

Alison Knowles and Rirkrit Tiravanija

Haim Steinbach

Heimo Zobernig

Tobias Rehberger

Ken Lum

Three Star Books
Founding partner, and commissioning editor of Two Star Books [with Dirk Imschoot, 2005-2007], Founding Partner and Editor of Three Star Books [2007-2015].

Comissioned and edited limited edition artists' books, participating in trade fairs, marketing, communications, sales and distribution.

Selected artists Lauf commissioned: John Armleder, John Baldessari, Maurizio Cattelan, Alison Knowles, Ken Lum, Olivier Mosset, Matt Mullican, Tobias Rehberger, Haim Steinbach; Rirkrit Tiravanija, Lawrence Weiner, Heimo Zobernig, among others.

Excuse My Dust by Sarah Seager. Imschoot Uitgevers, 1994.

Camera Oscura by Cornelia Lauf. Camera Oscura Gallery, 1999.
Winner of Red Dot Design Award.

Natura Naturata (An Argument for Still Life) by Cornelia Lauf.
Josh Baer Gallery, 1989.

Mutilate by Walter Van Beirendonck. Imschoot Uitgevers, 1997.

Satisfashion by Patrick Hoet. Imschoot Uitgevers, 1997.

A Book of Spoons by Jasper Morrison. Imschoot Uitgevers, 1997.

Goethe/Gricic: Quotidian Objects by Cornelia Lauf. Charta, 2001.

The Wealth of Nations by Cornelia Lauf. Imschoot Uitgevers, 1993. Centre for Contemporary Art Warsaw.

Books
Author, editor, or publisher of publications with artists since 1987.

Editor-in-chief of Imschoot, uitgevers, Ghent, 1989-1998.
Founding partner of Three Star Books, Paris, 2007 to 2015.
Photo Credits: Pamela Breda.

Sicilian Magazine
Carte d'Arte
Guest Editor
Messina, Italy (2006)

Edited by Cornelia Lauf and conceived as an artwork by Christian Philipp Müller, this issue of Carte D'Arte focuses on the island of Sicily as an organizing theme. Saturated images of local color by Christian Philipp Müller provide the visual content with musings on the culture of Sicily by curators and critics, such as a recipe for Sicilian Anchovy Pasta by Nancy Spector.

Contributors: Jan Avgikos, Hide Bouchez, Marella Caracciolo, Susan Hapgood, Elizabeth Helman, Volker Kaul, Elisabetta Povoledo, Nancy Spector, Susan Yelavich.

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