A Homage to Italian Arte Povera, Along the Hudson
After collecting Pop art from the 1960s, Ms. Olnick shifted focus with Mr. Spanu to the Arte Povera movement, collecting the work
of radical artists in Italy who shunned the commercial art market in the 1960s and explored unconventional, humble materials.
Their first exhibition pays homage to one of the leading Arte Povera champions, Margherita Stein, who ran Galleria Christian Stein in Turin (now in Milan), where Ms. Olnick
and Mr. Spanu acquired much of the gallerist’s personal collection after she died.
OLNICK The fish poacher, by Mario Merz, which is a banal pan filled with wax and [on top] says "che fare?" in neon, meaning, "What is to be done?" Originally the phrase was used by Lenin,
but Merz was addressing the crucial decisions that one has to make in one’s life.
Upstairs, where the exterior walls are entirely glass, a labyrinth is projected on the ceiling by Mario Airò, one of
10 contemporary Italian artists they have invited since 2003 to make site-specific works on their expansive grounds.
On June 28, this husband-and-wife team, who now run an art program, will open Magazzino, a self-funded exhibition space available by appointment in Cold Spring, N.Y., rotating large-scale works from their 400-plus-piece collection
that are too unwieldy for their home in nearby Garrison.
