August 11– September 6, 2019 

Roseanne Williams & Lucio Chiurulla

ATELIER NEWPORT's late summer exhibition, Due Amici Ancora, is an invitational two-person exhibition featuring Newport painter, Roseanne Williams, and Italian sculptor, Lucio Chiurulla.  

Due Amici Ancora, or Two Friends Again, is an exhibition featuring two artists who have been friends for over two decades, each living and working in different countries while maintaining a long shared poetic and creative process. Their friendship began when they met during an exhibition in Tuscany in 1998.  In 2000, the Director of Culture, and the Director of Archeology, in Tuscany invited Chiurulla and Williams, to participate in adjacent exhibitions in Populonia, an area rich in Etruscan history.   Lucio's modern sculptures were in the fields amid Etruscan tombs, and Williams' paintings were placed on the walls of the Museo Giulio Gasparri, juxtaposed with Etruscan artifacts and installed in the Medieval Castle by the formal garden.  During the inauguration in August 2000, the Gasparri family hosted a dinner in the garden in honor of the two friends.  Due Amici Ancora, attempts to explore a synchronous, collaborative process, borne of trust and intuition while preparing in different countries. 

Due Amici Ancora, marks Chiurulla's first exhibition in the states.  Lemmons and Maker Palmieri, first met Chiurulla on a recent visit to Palm Beach, where Williams hosted Chiurulla for one month. Williams, an avid painter, sculptor, collector and patron of Chiurulla's work, led a mission to host Chiurulla in his first marble workshop in the U.S. at the Lighthouse Art Center in Tequesta, Florida. 

With only chisel and mallet, these six burgeoning sculptors, many of whom had never worked with marble, carved for five days, led by Chiurulla's passion and knowledge. From the moment Lemmons and Maker Palmieri entered this makeshift studio, both stood in awe, at the renaissance moment, it was clear they were in the presence of a master.  Chiurulla's muse, Carrara marble, is painstakingly hand-carved, but the artist insists he instantaneously sees the sculpture from the moment he selects the block and only frees the sculpture.  From that moment on, Atelier Newport set out to invite Williams' and Chiurulla to collaborate once again, but this time in Newport.

Williams, a devoted artist, philanthropist and wife, works in all mediums: bronze, resin, wax, oil, acrylic, and photography.  She is inspired by the intensity of 12 Metre sailboat racing. In this series of paintings. the energy of these events literally explodes off the canvas.    Together, Roseanne and her husband Dennis are visionaries in their philanthropic endeavors with the Palm Beach Opera, the Lighthouse Arts Center, the Newport Art Museum and a host of creative-artistic endeavors related to sailing, music and art.

Known for her mixed media paintings, Williams' masterful use of color in these large-scale lyrical paintings is commanding, and her sweeping brushstrokes of color appear to pop off the canvas like Roman flares.  Williams painted this series in Hobe Sound, Florida and here in Newport.  Reminded of the history of Newport and the journeys art and artisans have taken from Europe by sea - this rite of passage was standard practice in the building of a place like Newport.  From Carrara to Tuscany, crossing borders, customs, and countries via planes, trains and automobiles, this work has made a journey to Newport, Rhode Island.