In Conversation: Massimiliano Gioni & Johanna Fateman on Carol Rama

On the occasion of ‘Carol Rama. I See You You See Me,’ Hauser & Wirth’s first exhibition dedicated to the work of radical Italian artist Carol Rama (1918 – 2015), please join us for a conversation about the artist and her work with writer, musician and critic Johanna Fateman and Artistic Director of both the New Museum in New York and the Nicola Trussardi Foundation in Milan, Massimiliano Gioni.

‘Carol Rama. I See You You See Me,’ gathers key works from six decades of Rama’s career, bringing new focus to the nature of her wildly original experimentations in various mediums—paint, textile, sculpture and bricolage—from 1947 through 1998. Rama’s non-conformist approach to artmaking was largely dismissed during her lifetime. However, her oeuvre has attracted new attention in recent years, exerting a noteworthy influence on generations of contemporary artists for whom Rama’s formal breadth and unfailing belief in visual art as a tool for liberation, are signposts. A pioneer who forged connections between desire, sacrifice, eroticism, repression and rebellion, Rama now is taking her rightful place at the center of current cultural dialogue.

This program is free; however, reservations are required.

About Carol Rama
Over more than seven decades, Carol Rama (b. 1918, Turin; d. 2015) developed a radical body of work that addressed connections between desire, sacrifice, eroticism and repression. Today, Rama is considered one of the most original and individualistic artists to emerge from the 20th Century. By constructing a visual cosmos where transgression leads to liberation, Rama countered assumptions about gender, sexuality and representation, offering a retort to the societal conventions and the prevailing far-right political ideologies that defined the fascist-dominated Italy of her youth. She set neither boundaries nor hierarchies between painting, drawing, sculpture and printmaking, pulling all of these mediums into her image universe. ‘My self-assurance exists only across from a sheet of paper that needs to be filled in,’ Rama once declared. ‘Work is the only way to drive off my fears. My rebellion consists of painting.’

About Johanna Fateman
Johanna Fateman is a New York-based writer, musician, and co-chief art critic for CULTURED Magazine. Previously, she wrote regularly for the New Yorker, 4Columns,and Artforum, where she was a contributing editor.

She has written texts for many exhibition catalogues and monographs, on artists such as Charles Atlas, Judith Bernstein, Judy Chicago, Donald Judd, and Hilary Pecis. She co-edited and wrote the introduction for the critically acclaimed anthology Last Days at Hot Slit: the Radical Feminism of Andrea Dworkin, published by semiotext(e) in 2019.

In 2023 her former band, Le Tigre, performed for the first time since 2005; her tour diary of the band’s reunion shows appears in Cookie Jar 2, 2025, a pamphlet series of the Andy Warhol Foundation Art Writers Grant.

About Massimiliano Gioni
Massimiliano Gioni is the Artistic Director of both the New Museum in New York and the Nicola Trussardi Foundation in Milan. He has curated a range of international exhibitions, including the 55th Venice Biennale (2013); the 8th Gwangju Biennial (2010); the first New Museum Triennial (co-curated with Lauren Cornell and Laura Hoptman) (2009); the 4th Berlin Biennale (co-curated with Maurizio Cattelan and Ali Subotnick) (2006); and Manifesta 5 (co-curated with Marta Kuzma) (2004). At the New Museum, he has organized solo presentations of artists including Lynda Benglis, Judy Chicago, Nicole Eisenman, Theaster Gates, Carsten Höller, Sarah Lucas, Chris Ofili, Faith Ringgold, Pipilotti Rist, and the retrospective "Carol Rama: Antibodies (2017). At the Trussardi Foundation he has curated various solo shows and public art projects with, among others, Paweł Althamer, Tacita Dean, Fischli and Weiss, Paul McCarthy, Paola Pivi, Anri Sala, and Tino Sehgal. His group exhibitions - including the most recent "New Humans: Memories of the Future", which inaugurated the expanded New Museum - have become signature programs of the NY institution. Gioni frequently collaborates with the Deste Foundation in Athens; the Aisthi Foundation in Beirut; and the Qatar Museums in Doha; and has presented major exhibitions in London; Mexico City; Milan; Rome; Shanghai; and Washington DC, among many other cities around the world.

Images: Portrait of Massimiliano Gioni. Photo: Marco De Scalzi; Portrait of Johanna Fateman. Photo: Sini Anderson; Carol Rama in her studio, 1997. Photo: Pino Dell’Aquila

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