The Floating Sistine Chapel Angel Orensanz in Italy

Tomorrow, Wednesday December 1st, there will be a public homage to Angel Orensanz at the Italian Cultural Institute in Park Avenue, New York. It celebrates two decades of creativity of Angel Orensanz in Italy in which he has contributed with an outpouring of museum exhibitions, gallery shows, public sculpture, publications and environmental pieces through the entire Italian geography. Among his most distinctive contributions are presentations at Galleria ca D’Oro and St. Ivo alla Sapienza (Rome); “Burning Universe”, a multi-floor show at the Palazzo Malipiero in Venice by the Gran Canal (40th Venice Biennale); and Galleria Ca’ Razzonico, Venicee (2005). Other shows include Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza; "Scavare il futuro", Caserta (Naples). Accademia de Arti, Reggio Calabria; and The International Exhibition Aperto (Venice) 2003 and 2009.

His last retrospective exhibition took place at Museo della Cuba (Palermo, Sicily) under the auspices of the Fondazione Porta Felice (Palermo) and Fondazione Orestiade a La Gibellina (Sicily). These last two shows were curated by Achille Bonito Oliva, his comments and texts on Angel Orensanz's work will be specially featured in this homage.

Angel Orensanz's contribution to Italian arts scene consists of exhibitions, interventions, cooperation in artistic and environmental preservation plans; movies and fashion. He was awarded the Albo d’Oro of the Accademia Internazionale d’Arte Moderna di Roma, 1979.
Besides Achille Bonito Oliva, other Italian art critics who have extensively written about Angel Orensanz are: Gillo Dorfles, Tommasso Trini, John Spike, Davide Scaravelli and Angelo Capasso.

The Floating Sistine Chapel is a sculpture project that Angel Orensanz developed at Angel Orensanz Foundation in Manhattan this past Summer and that traveled to the Marumuchi Building in Tokyo early this Fall, with great success. It reflects Angel Orensanz's passion for the Italian Renaissance and culture.

“Instability is the true essence of contemporary art... Orensanz’s works never reveal their beginning and end. The concept does not prevail over the object. It is the fruit of a web which weaves together the memory of culture and the memory of nature... This is the essence of Orensanz’s topicality: with his vibrant clarity he anticipated various forms of awareness among which also those of the Transvanguardia with regard to art’s interior nature.”- Achille Bonito Oliva, on Angel Orensanz.