Artists' portfolio: Nicola Carrino, the artist of the "Visionary Space"

Among the most interesting and coherent protagonists of the Italian and international artistic panorama, Nicola Carrino (Taranto 1932 - Rome 2018) for almost sixty years has conducted rigorous research, with a highly visionary content, on the dynamic transformation of form and space.

Moved to Rome in 1962, is one of the founders of "Group1", with Born Frasca, Achille Pace, Giuseppe Uncini, Pasquale Santoro and Gastone Biggi. The group, baptized by Giulio Carlo Argan e Palma de Mallorca Bucarelli, proposed the overcoming of informal currents in favor of a geometric and rational research on new materials. The partnership was short-lived and dissolved in 1967. Carrino continues to independently deepen its aesthetic line. A plastic research, oriented to the redefinition of space through the elaboration of regular volumes, solid geometries, imposing structures made with industrial materials. In particular, he is dedicated to the design of works installations with a strong modular system and built in iron and stainless steel, his favorite material. Works that forcefully intervene in the space that hosts them, modifying it and opening it up to possible transformative actions and conscious actions by the viewer.

Thus, between 68 and 69, the "Transformable constructives”, the first sculptures made of iron and steel of great volumetric impact. The works are distributed in space in relationship installer and they participate in the urban planning vision of the complex construction of the city, becoming in turn habitable sculptures. And so on up to the "Deconstructive" from 2005-2006, the artist's last works. Large-sized sculptures with a great visual impact that redesign the configuration of the place by activating a new dialectic of the gaze, of the perception of the environment. "Mine work – explained the artist – is not to be looked at for what it is, but for what means… They are like molecules of human organisms that continue to transform themselves in time and space".

Nicola Carrino (Taranto 1932 – Rome 2018)

Professor of Sculpture and academic of San Luca, which he presided over in 2009-2010, Nicola Carrino, who died in his Rome studio home on May 15 at the age of 86, had made his debut in the art world in a group exhibition in 1952. For almost a decade he dedicated himself to pictorial research passing from realism to the informal . In 1962, having moved to the Capital, the great turning point with the participation in the "Group One". Since 1967 he has been designing public works in relation to architecture and the landscape and installation interventions with modular sculptures in iron and stainless steel, "modular and transformable".

He took part in the Venice Biennale (1966, 1970, 1976, 1986), Paris (1967), São Paulo in Brazil (1971, 1979), the Rome Quadrennial (1965, 1973, 1986,1999). He holds solo exhibitions in the Salone Annunciata galleries in Milan (1970), Gallery M. of Bochum(1976), Gallery Marlborough of Rome (1976), Gallery Denise Kidney Hans Mayer by Duesseldorf (1977) Gallery Denise Kidney in New York (1978), The Mayor Gallery in London (2007), A Arte Invernizzi in Milan (2010 and 2017). In 1971 he was awarded the Prize for Sculpture at theXI Biennial of São Paulo in Brazil and in 2010 he received the gold medal of the President of the Republic for the retrospective exhibition at MODO in Orvieto. In 2009 he was nominated Academic Correspondent for the Academy Nationalde Spain Fine Arts of Buenos Aires.

Among the numerous permanent works in public spaces, the urban reorganization of Piazza Fontana, in Taranto, his hometown, of which he was particularly proud, certainly stands out. His works are present in the collections of the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, the Experimental Museum of Contemporary Art in Turin, the MART in Rovereto, the Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation of Milan, of the Collection Dierichs of Ruhr Universitydi Bochum. And in important public and private collections in Italy and abroad.

The market

The quotations of Nicola's works Carrino on the secondary market (mainly at auctions) do not correspond to its real value, especially if one takes into account the importance and role played by the Master in the art system during his long career. If we take into consideration those indicators which in economics are called "fundamental" - which for an artist are represented by a series of elements ranging from the originality of the research to the quality of the works produced, from exhibition activity to the presence in museums, large public and private collections, participation in the Biennales etc. – immediately catches the eye that Carrino he has what it takes (see his curriculum vitae) to aspire to much more important performances.

Pricing: Secondo Artprice there are over 80 of his auctions with a percentage of sold around 50% and a turnover that in 2017 amounted to 36 thousand euros. His works, by historians  “Constructive”transformable (combinations of modular elements in iron or steel of various sizes) from the 60s and 70s, to the most recent"Deconstructive"up to the refined drawings and collages, change hands for a few thousand euros.

The situation in the gallery is different, where Studio Arte Invernizzi in Milan is doing an excellent job of giving the work of Carrino the place it deserves in the art market.

Gallery: A.Art Invernizzi and Grossetti studio, Milan

Top Price at auction: “Relief 69” made in 1969, volume sculpture in aluminum 125x125x9 cm. it changed hands at the auction house Dorotheum of Vienna at 16.250 euros (including fees) in June 2017.