Bio : CIMA

ABOUT CIMA:    

Founded in 2013, CIMA is a public non-profit dedicated to presenting modern and contemporary Italian art to international audiences. Through critically acclaimed exhibitions—many of them bringing work to U.S. audiences for the first time—along with a wide variety of public programs and substantial support for new scholarship awarded through its international fellowship program, CIMA situates Italian modern art in an expansive historic and cultural context, illuminating its continuing relevance to contemporary culture and serving as an incubator of curatorial ideas for larger cultural institutions.

CIMA works to add new voices to scholarship on modern Italian art with annual fellowships that open fresh perspectives and new avenues of research. A visit begins with a complimentary espresso, followed by an informal exhibition tour with one of the resident fellows. Visitors are welcome to linger for additional viewing and conversation.

CIMA President Laura Mattioli:

Born in Milan in 1950, daughter of one of the most notorious modern art collectors, Gianni Mattioli, Laura Mattioli frequented famous artists since childhood. With a diploma in Modern Literature from the Università Statale of Milan, she obtained a specialization degree in art history in 1978. Her studies focused on the history of collecting (La Collezione Gianni Mattioli dal 1943 al 1953 in F. Fergonzi, La collezione Gianni Mattioli. Capolavori dell’avanguardia italiana, Skira 2003), fifteenth century Lombard art (Foppa e la Cappella Portinari, ed. Motta 1999), twentieth century Italian art (curation in 2010 of Giorgio Morandi et l’abstarction du réel at the Hotel des Arts in Toulon) and contemporary American art (curation of the exhibit Dan Flavin. Stanze di luce tra Varese e New York. Opere della Collezione Panza dal Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum di New York, Villa Menafoglio Litta Panza in Varese, property of FAI, 2004). Between 1992 and 1999 Mattioli taught at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bergamo. She curated various exhibitions, among which, in 1997-98 Morandi Ultimo in Verona and in Venice, in 2004 a show on Boccioni at the Guggenheim in New York, in 2006 Boccioni Pittore e Scultore at Milan’s Palazzo Reale, in 2011 Barry X Ball. Portraits and Masterpieces at Ca’ Rizzonico in Venice, and in 2018 Barry X Ball, The End of History, at Villa Menafoglio Litta Panza a Varese, property of FAI. In 1995-97 she promoted Dan Flavin’s permanent light installation at Santa Maria Annunciata in Chiesa Rossa in Milan, in collaboration with the Fondazione Prada in Milan and the DIA Art Foundation in New York.

In 2013 Mattioli founded the nonprofit Center for Italian Modern Art in New York City, where she has curated all of the exhibitions up until 2018-19. Currently she is the President of the Board of Directors of the Center. In 2018, after 5 years spent in the Confederation, she instituted with her sons the Fondation Mattioli Rossi in Switzerland, to manage and make as accessible as possible to the public part of her father’s, as well as her own collections. Since March 2018 Mattioli resides in New York, with the goal of dedicating herself completely to the American non-profit.