An exhibition in memory of Otto Nehm.

With “Otto per Otto” (Eng: Eight for Otto), Rossella Vasta presents eight works created last year, dedicated as a homage to Otto Nehm, who died in 2006. The artist and the doctor, collector and patron of the arts from the German town of Witten were bound together in close friendship since the early Nineties.

The title ‘Orpheus’ Journey’ evokes the mythical journey of Orpheus to the underworld. From there, as Hades had allowed him because of the beauty of his art, Orpheus wanted to lead his deceased wife Eurydice back from the realm of the dead into the world of the living. Playing the lyre while striding ahead of her, he was forbidden only one thing: to turn around and look at her before returning from the world of shadows. We all know how the story ends.


Aside from a recapitulation of Orpheus’ epic failure, the artist is primarily concerned with the role of art, through which it is possible for us to open emotional and intellectual spaces beyond ordinary sentiments, experiences and possibilities. Spaces to which, as Vasta herself writes, “one returns after some time, for a reunion, to escape oblivion...”


The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with a very personal text by the artist, to which she adds excerpts from her intensive correspondence with Otto Nehm.



About the artist:


Born in Palermo on August 30, 1962, in 1987 Vasta took her Master Degree in Philosophy at the University of Perugia. Her thesis was “Visual Education for the Development of the Creative Personality”.

​
In 1997, after living for a few years between New York and Washington D.C., USA, Vasta decided to show in Perugia at Palazzo della Penna, together with the artists she was in contact with while in New York.
​

Between 1999 and 2000, she resided inGermany where in the Ci...

The title ‘Orpheus’ Journey’ evokes the mythical journey of Orpheus to the underworld. From there, as Hades had allowed him because of the beauty of his art, Orpheus wanted to lead his deceased wife Eurydice back from the realm of the dead into the world of the living. Playing the lyre while striding ahead of her, he was forbidden only one thing: to turn around and look at her before returning from the world of shadows. We all know how the story ends.


Aside from a recapitulation of Orpheus’ epic failure, the artist is primarily concerned with the role of art, through which it is possible for us to open emotional and intellectual spaces beyond ordinary sentiments, experiences and possibilities. Spaces to which, as Vasta herself writes, “one returns after some time, for a reunion, to escape oblivion...”


The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with a very personal text by the artist, to which she adds excerpts from her intensive correspondence with Otto Nehm.



About the artist:


Born in Palermo on August 30, 1962, in 1987 Vasta took her Master Degree in Philosophy at the University of Perugia. Her thesis was “Visual Education for the Development of the Creative Personality”.

​
In 1997, after living for a few years between New York and Washington D.C., USA, Vasta decided to show in Perugia at Palazzo della Penna, together with the artists she was in contact with while in New York.
​

Between 1999 and 2000, she resided in Germany where in the Cistercian Abbey of Marienstatt she realized the works which were to be exhibited at the Bochum Museum. Vasta has lectured for several academic institutions such as the American University of Washington D.C., Chautauqua Institution in Buffalo, New York, Cardinal Stritch in Milwaukee and Montana State University in Bozeman.


First prize holder for painting at the Florence International Biennial in 2003, Vasta has widely exhibited in Italy and abroad. She is an Academic of Merit and has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Academy of Fine Arts Pietro Vannucci in Perugia.

​
In 2012, Rossella Vasta was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Humane Letters by Cardinal Stritch Franciscan University.

​
Since the year 2000, Vasta has served as director and coordinator of the Pieve International School of Corciano.


WWW.ROSSELLAVASTA.COM

Read More