Collectors pay homage to Italian Arte Povera, along the Hudson

THE NEW YORK TIMES
Show Us Your Walls
By Hilarie Sheets

Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu at home in Garrison, N.Y., where they display Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Italian flag artwork made of rags. Credit Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

GARRISON, NY---Nancy Olnick has long considered herself an Italophile. But this New Yorker never imagined Italy would become such a central part of her life until she met Giorgio Spanu, a native of Sardinia, in 1989. After collecting Pop art from the 1960s, Ms. Olnick shifted focus with Mr. Spanu to the Arte Povera movement, collecting the work of radical artists in Italy who shunned the commercial art market in the 1960s and explored unconventional, humble materials. On June 28, this husband-and-wife team, who now run an art program, will open Magazzino, a self-funded exhibition space available by appointment in Cold Spring, N.Y., rotating large-scale works from their 400-plus-piece collection that are too unwieldy for their home in nearby Garrison. [More]