By Jonathan Turner, edited by Jim Luce.
New York, NY. The renowned gallery LipanjePuntin artecontemporanea is proud to present Unitas Multiplex - A New World, a solo exhibition by Antonio Pio Saracino. In some ways resembling Leonardo da Vinci’s renowned Universal Man – a figure with his arms outstretched towards an ever-expanding world – Antonio Pio Saracino represents a truly contemporary version of the dynamic creator.
The Seed House is a conceptual design for a 1400-sq.-ft. country house set in
the woods that was nominated for the American Architecture Award 2007.
Collaboration design by Antonio Pio Saracino, Steve Blatz
Antonio is an award-winning designer, architect, painter, photographer, and artist – a multi-talented thinker from the computer age, with recent exhibitions held across the continents of Europe, North and South America and Australia.
Piazze Re Manfredi. Inspired by the figure of the founder Manfred, the figure of the heraldic eagle Svevo becomes the design of the Monument Square, the wings become elevated greens so many rays that float in the square, where citizens can stand, sit and gather.
Born in 1976 in Puglia, and currently based in New York and Italy, Antonio Pio Saracino has conceived a refined exhibition for Trieste, including modular furniture, prototypes, architectural interventions, mixed media drawings and the world premiere of his latest design, the Leaf Chair, produced in Brussels (by Materialse) especially for this event.
Premio Re Manfredi. This monument is intended for the community to interact,
create a lookout on the castle and the sea, a point of gathering the community
around art performances and cultural events.
“Design is the place between humans and nature,” says Antonio Pio Saracino. Inspired by mythology and by such natural forms as plants, bones, animal horns, crystals and microscopic elements, he demonstrates a rare ability to translate exotic notions into feasible blue-prints for construction.
Vertical SPA. The hundred meter high tower, next to the Coliseum in Rome creates a debate to explore Rome as vertical city for the future. The challenge of this competition is to discover the belonging to the Eternal City. Therefore the suggested tower functions as an element demonstrative of this spirit, projecting it in the present time and the uncertain future of a city which has survived every kind of event: refreshing, renewing and exposing of the constant rebirth of its vital structure.
The exhibition at LipanjePuntin artecontemporanea, curated by Rome-based art critic Jonathan Turner, shows the breadth of Saracino’s fast-growing career, plus his use of vastly different materials. His Molecular Chair made from recycled felt on a metal frame, the Ray Armchair and Sofa constructed from foam, the Modular Chair made from black carbon-fibre and the new, sinuous Blossom Chair in laminated wood, each reveal a different, though linked, sense of aesthetics. This exhibition also includes designs and original screenprints for skyscrapers, domestic objects and his Trojan Horse, a prototype for a playful, prefabricated house currently being built for a client in Tuscany.
The tower opens up over the city of Rome by a series of fluid arcs inspired by the shape of Coliseum and the fluidity of water. The Vertical spa is organized with pools, saunas, treatment rooms and gardens. Team Project Antonio Pio Saracino, Steve Blatz, Simone Luccichenti.
“If you want to feel the heartbeat and energy of Italy - powerful and emotional at the same time -simply look at the work of Antonio Pio Saracino,” writes Jin-Young Soo, senior editor at Casa Living magazine published in Seoul in 2010. “He perfectly understands the concept of the linear, and how to use straight lines for strength and curved lines for softness. His prime concern is the origin of material and form, and how to create new objects from this unusual sense of empathy.”
The Cervo Chair (Deer Chair) is shaped out of thin strips of bent wood that recall the ribcage and antlers of a deer. The complexity of the bent wood creates an inside-out shape that strengthens the seat itself. The Blossom Chair consists of an elastic flexible seat and a back that curl toward each other when sat upon and spring back slightly when vacant, much like the petals of a flower opening and closing. The organic shape, with four petals, adjusts to the human body dynamically depending on which side the body exerts more pressure.
Over the past decade, Antonio Pio Saracino’s work has been featured in exhibitions in the U.S., U.K., Belgium, Greece, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Australia and throughout Italy. In 2009, his much-published design for the harbour-side Sydney house of Australian Olympic gold-medal diver Matt Mitcham was included in the Matt Dive Gold show in the former Roman gallery of LipanjePuntin artecontemporanea.
Diver’s House in Sydney, designed for the Australian diver Matt Mitcham who won the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is inspired by the architecture of the Sydney Opera house and the natural structural of seashells. The house’s shell made of reinforced concrete was designed using an algorithm describing the intricate geometry of a coral.
More recently, his multi-media designs and projects have been seen in his Nature/Data solo show (2010) at Industry Gallery in Washington DC. This year, his Gate 150 monument honoring Italian immigrants in South America has been featured in solo shows at the Caraffa Museum in Cordoba, Argentina and at MuBE (Brazil Museum of Sculpture) in Sao Paulo, and he is currently participating in the Italian Pavilion in the World project as part of the 54th Biennale di Venezia, with further shows planned for New York, Los Angeles and Sydney in 2011.
The various floors of the house blend in with the stairs, which extend and turn into an intricate system of diving boards on various levels. The fluid geometry of upward motion along ramps prepares the diver for the smooth movement of diving and the experience of encountering water. The ramps and diving boards form the distribution backbone of the house. Swimming pool water enters the ground floor of the house.
Tibi Showroom. Inspired by the fluid movement of a ribbon, this corporate headquarters/showroom reinforces the fashion label’s bold visual identity. The interior features a signature ribbon motif that sinuously unfolds through the length of the open-plan with original vaulted ceilings. This element defines the headquarters’ public sections – the reception areas, the conference room, and pantry — from its private ones. Interior Design: Antonio Pio Saracino + Steve Blatz.
In 2007, Antonio Pio Saracino was the winner of the international Europalia Festival competition in Belgium, representing Italy with a luminous installation featuring monumental photographs in front of the Brussels central train station. His designs for tables, lights and adjustable screens have won four times at the Future Furniture Fair in New York, while his Seed House in upstate New York was winner of the American Architecture Award ‘07 from the Chicago Athenaeum and Museum of Architecture.
Gate, Washington, DC. Exhibition NATURE / DATA Industry Gallery Washington DC. This is a monument honoring two centuries of Italian emigration to the US and South America. Data about emigration from 1810-2010 have been graphically rendered as the layers or strata of the monument. The exhibition features two large-scale models of the Gates.
Last year, he unveiled his design for the 2010 Formula One and Moto GP World Championship trophy, and he has been commissioned to design a new version for 2011, to be presented for the first time after the races later this year in Budapest.
MaxWax is a 1000 sq. ft. waxing salon located on a busy intersection of the Upper East Side in Manhattan. The interior design of the salon has been conceived with continuous curved surfaces that fluidly loop through the space separating the public and private functions. The project is inspired by the sinuous curves of the body and the fluidity of the wax material used in the salon. The vibrant orange color of the inner curved surfaces, taken from the brand’s logo, delineates a peeling away of the surface, thus creating a clear identification of inside / out spaces in the salon.Interior Design: Antonio Pio Saracino + Steve Blatz.
According to Marco Pisani in L’ARCA magazine: “Saracino is an emblematic example of progressive Italian creativity in these years of nomadic identity.” In 2007, he was nominated by ARTnews magazine in New York as one of the world’s 25 most interesting trendsetters. This solo show is an anteprima to an exhibition which will develop in Trieste as a work-in-progress throughout the summer.
Antonio Pio Saracino. Born in Italy, Antonio currently works and lives in New York City and Italy. In 2003 he received his Master Degree cum laude at the University of Architecture ‘La Sapienza’ in Rome, where he worked as an assistant professor of Architectural Design. Antonio has won several international art, architecture and design awards, including four ‘Future Furniture Awards’ by Interior Design Magazine. His projects have been widely published in design and art magazines in Italy, U.K., The Netherlands, France, Belgium, Australia, Japan, and the U.S. In 2007 he was named as one of the world’s 25 most interesting trend-setters by New York’s ARTnews magazine. Antonio serves as a Global Adviser to the International University Center Haiti (story).
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