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Italian canvas: Santa Fe artist Eileen Olivieri returns to her family's roots
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Santa Fe artist Eileen Olivieri is returning home to the Italy of her ancestors through a fresco.
An adjunct creative writing professor at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Olivieri has created a site-specific installation in Bienno, Italy, as part of her residency there.
Olivieri projected her installation 鈥淩eturning鈥� onto a 400-year-old deteriorating medieval fresco called 鈥淧ath of Triumphs: Petrarca and Dante.鈥� The project features her own drawings and photographs onto the walls in an ephemeral tapestry of human topography. It opens on Saturday, Oct. 5.
Italian canvas: Santa Fe artist Eileen Olivieri returns to her family's roots
鈥淲hen they found it, it was buried beneath four layers of plaster,鈥� Olivieri said of the fresco.
Olivieri first learned about and visited the area in 2022. She worked on the installation during her residency there last spring, creating a reimagined 鈥渃anvas.鈥�
The installation is personal. Olivieri鈥檚 grandfather emigrated from the Italy to the U.S. at the turn of the century when he was 13 years old. He never returned.
鈥淗is father put him on a ship,鈥� she said.
It also honors her late mother, who died in 2023.
鈥淚 really wanted to draw on the fresco, but, obviously, they wouldn鈥檛 let me,鈥� Olivieri said. 鈥淭hey will let me project art onto it. The walls of the gallery are this fresco.鈥�
鈥淩eturning I鈥� shows a portion of a fresco detail embellished with Olivieri鈥檚 mark-making in an ink-on-paper photo composite. 鈥淩eturning II鈥� features a she-wolf from Dante鈥檚 鈥淚nferno.鈥�
鈥淭here were three evil beasts,鈥� Olivieri said. 鈥淭he she-wolf represented greed, the lion violence, and the panther stood for lust, fraud and betrayal.
鈥淭hat wolf was actually from another part of the fresco,鈥� she continued. 鈥淭here are faces on this fresco.鈥�
The fresco gallery was originally the office of a medieval businessman, she added.
After the opening, Olivieri will travel to Rome, where she is working on another piece located in a dry lake basin through the American Academy of Rome. Once the third-largest lake in Italy, the Lake Fucino Basin spans 37 miles around. Olivieri will walk its circumference and create art.
Located in Abruzzo, the area dates to the pre-Christian Indigenous people called the Marsi before the Romans took over, she said. She plans to research the Angitia, the primary deity of the Marsi people.
鈥淢y grandfather was from that region,鈥� she added.
Olivieri grew up in Oregon and earned her Master of Fine Arts at New Jersey鈥檚 Rutgers University. She moved to Santa Fe after 9/11, eventually becoming the gallery director of the Santa Fe Art Institute.
鈥淚 define myself as interdisciplinary,鈥� she said.
Her master鈥檚 degree was in studio arts.
鈥淚 started in ceramics,鈥� Olivieri said. 鈥淢y dad got me on the wheel when I was very young 鈥� second grade. I just took to clay.鈥�
Then she discovered photography in her 20s.
Her most recent projects have been guided by the question, 鈥淲hat does it mean to decolonize my art practice?鈥� In 2023-2024, Olivieri received a faculty research grant from the American Indian College Fund to explore this question as an artist-in-residence at Borgo Degli Artisti in Bienno.
