Pier Paolo Calzolari, born in 1943 in Bologna, is recognized as a
leading figure of the Arte Povera movement and a seminal artist whose
practice spans painting, sculpture, video, audio, text, performance,
installation, architecture, light, and video. Through the use of both
ordinary and unconventional materials, such as lead, salt, neon, ice,
tobacco, moss, fire, and butter, Calzolari explores transformation of
matter and ephemeral states--exploiting an underlying fragility in his
materials. This book focuses on the artist's work over the last 25 years
and coincides with concurrent exhibitions (April 28-June 2, 2012) at
Marianne Boesky Gallery and Pace Gallery, the artist's first exhibitions
in New York since 1988.