The gallerist Anna Marra, photo by Sebastiano Luciano
ANNA MARRA GALLERY: AN INTERVIEW WITH ANNA MARRA
The interviews to discover who there’s behind the work of art galleries are going on, and after meeting the Raffaella Cortese Gallery now it’s time to discover the Anna Marra Gallery in Rome.
Anna Marra Gallery, in Rome since 2013
Embodying: Flesh, Fiber, Features
Brie Ruais, Martha Tuttle, Letha Wilson
curated by Serena Trizzino
exhibition at the Anna Marra Gallery, sept – oct 2019
photo by Simon d’Exéa
Anna Marra Gallery opened in Rome, in the ancient Jewish Ghetto, an exhibition area characterized by a minimalist architecture and exhibition, with the aim of valorizing especially emerging talented artists, with an attentive eye on both Italian art and overseas artistic research.
ANNA MARRA GALLERY: HISTORY
Alice Traforti: How and why did you open the gallery?
Anna Marra: As an economist, for more than 20 years I have worked in a completely different field.
My passion for contemporary art as a collector, my friendship with a historical gallerist such as Mara Coccia and the need to be more present with my family, led me to take up this career.
Sharing the passion for contemporary art with my husband, the promotion of the artists’ work has always been part of our life.
Inner Landscapes
Paula Cortazar, Benjamin Degen, Alexandra Karakashian, Michele Mathison
curated by Marina Dacci
exhibition at the Anna Marra Gallery, nov 2019 – feb 2020 photo by Simon d’Exéa
ANNA MARRA GALLERY: RESEARCH
Alice Traforti: Which kind of research are you interested in carrying out and which kind of relationship do you establish with the artists you support?
Anna Marra: I’m interested in artistic research, which offers a critical look at society and present-day problems.
I’m thinking of artists such as Bertozzi & Casoni or Perino & Vele, who have been investigating for years political and social issues of contemporary society through the representation of everyday reality in their sculptures, but also of Afro-American artists in general, and their knowledge of suffering and their condition of social outcasts.
My aim is to promote and support the artistic research of both Italian and foreign emerging artists, not only by organizing events in the exhibition spaces of my gallery but also in national and international private art galleries and public institutions.
ANNA MARRA GALLERY: EVOLUTION
Alice Traforti: What difficulties did you face and what goals did you achieve?
Anna Marra: Let’s start with the positive things.
The first important goal I achieved is to be identified as a gallery which focuses on artistic research: this is certainly the aspect of my job I prefer: satisfying my curiosity about what’s new for a really contemporary offer.
Another important result I’m achieving is greater visibility abroad, not only by participating in art fairs on an international level in Paris, London, Brussels, but also through a collaboration with foreign galleries and curators, in particular in New York. With this precious cooperation, since 2016 I’ve arranged a series of exhibitions dedicated to American and Afro-American artists, in order to offer an attentive eye on overseas artistic research.
I organized for the first time in Italy shows of important artists such as Derrick Adams, Firelei Báez and Paul Anthony Smith. And then I’m particularly proud of having arranged in 2017 the first exhibition outside the USA of Martine Gutierrez, young artist later chosen for the 58th Venice Biennale.
The curator Ralph Rugoff himself put Martine Gutierrez among 5 artists to keep an eye on among all those who participated in May You Live In Interesting Times, and it is no coincidence that his intervention has been one of the most mentioned by international press.
As regards difficulties I faced, I can affirm that in my experience as an art gallerist, I’ve realized that it is very complicated, in the field of contemporary art, to create a union of different galleries to follow a common path which can reinforce the proposal of each gallery.
Benjamin Degen, Night Move, 2018, oil and spray enamel on canvas, 152,5×213,5
cm
ANNA MARRA GALLERY: PLANNING
Alice Traforti: Scheduled events 2020
Anna Marra: In these very days the gallery is hosting an interesting collective exhibition curated by Marina Dacci, on view until February 1st.
In 2020 instead, there will certainly be international art fairs which will take place between February and April: Art Rotterdam where I’ll present a solo show by the American Alexandria Smith and in April I’ll come back to French art fair Art Paris with Faig Ahmed, Bertozzi & Casoni and Veronica Botticelli.
Always in spring will be on display the series of exhibitions curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah, with a collective exhibition which six Afro-American artists will participate in: Kim Dacres, Kenturah Davis, Basil Kincaid, Nate Lewis, David Shrobe, Kennedy Yanko. In autumn will take place the third date of Postcard from New York – Part III, curated by Serena Trizzino, a series begun in 2016, which hosts and celebrates the work of artists who live and work in New York.
ANNA MARRA GALLERY: INFORMATION
For updates on the events and the proposals of the Anna Marra Gallery visit the official website – https://www.galleriaannamarra.com
Michele Mathison, Artery, 2018, steel, asphalt, tufo (limestone), 88x69x75 cm
Post by Alice Traforti.
