THE STREET IS IN THE HOUSE

CARLO SAMPIETRO

MARCH 1ST – 31st 2016

In his first US solo show, The Street is in the House, Italian born artist Carlo Sampietro presents five years of work based on his observations of life in megalopolises. “The Street is in the House” is a body of work that transmutes elements of urban life into objets d’art. By using found materials and placing them in unfamiliar contexts and sophisticated designs, Sampietro reshapes everyday objects into meaningful amalgams. Sampietro dismantles established value structures and elements of social behavior, the catastrophic result of human ignorance, and the immutability of desire.
The artist begins by surrounding himself with objects that populate NYC sidewalks. He obsessively searches for familiar props on the street that will represent and communicate metaphors concerning problematic situations rooted in urban society. Based on his international background and his research, he uses a point of view and comparison that expands to megacities worldwide. He forces the audience to face social realities by bringing repurposed street objects into the house or bringing viewers out into the street.

At the gallery, spectators will be able to play mini-golf through “Street Scraper,” a reconstruction of a 50 foot sidewalk where urban elements seem to emerge from the concrete. This installation is a provocation to reuse the sidewalk as a social melting pot and as an extension of our living rooms, the way life in the city used to be.

In his installation, PopDogs, Sampietro investigates facets of theurban condition by creating a gargantuan edifice—a popcorn machine that spews plastic dogs at an alarming rate—a symbolicparallel to canine overpopulation in urban centers. In the video art Bunda Pandeiro, Sampietro explores the roles of gender and race in the contemporary world. An entire room will be dedicated to Cloche Sofa Masterpieces, a body of work that dismantles discarded elements of construction materials, such as sewer pipes and elevates them into unique and functional designs.