The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, the Costantino Nivola Foundation and the Italian Cultural Institute of New York present Nivola in New York : Figure in Field, an exhibition on the sculptor's work Italian Costantino Nivola (1911-1988), famous for his large bas-reliefs, murals and sculptural installations created in collaboration with architects.

Open from January 23 to March 15 at the Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gallery, the exhibition is the first ever to tell the story of the projects built by Nivola in New York City, through maquettes and sculptures, original drawings, site-specific photographs and related objects.
The exhibition also presents a chronology that outlines 58 projects created by Nivola in collaboration with the architects over a period of about 40 years.

In addition to the exhibition, the Cooper Union will present a variety of related programs, including a conference on the role of public art, as well as educational workshops and tours throughout the city to discover Nivola's work.
A free pocket guide will also be produced to encourage visitors to learn more about these works and see them in situ.

New York is home to the largest collection of Nivola's public works - 21 projects in all 5 boroughs, at least 17 of which still exist.
"A disciple of Le Corbusier, Nivola believed in the synthesis of the arts, the collaboration between the artist and the architect" - states Giuliana Altea, President of the Costantino Nivola Foundation - "After the success of his great mural relief for the Olivetti showroom in New York, in 1954, had gained an international reputation as a 'sculptor for architects' and had started working with important figures such as Josep Lluís Sert, Marcel Breuer and Eero Saarinen. "

"Nivola supported the idea that art must be accessible to everyone, which is why so many of his works were created specifically for public and municipal spaces" explains Antonella Camarda, Director of the Nivola Museum. "In fact, 15 of his projects in the New York metropolitan area were commissioned for city schools, underlining the importance assigned to community work and the role of art in collective life."

Sardinian Nivola was already active as an artist in Italy before fleeing fascism with his Jewish wife and settling in New York in 1939. Later, he moved with his family to Long Island, where he discovered and perfected his sandcasting technique, a plaster or cement cast taken from a negative molded sand matrix. This process allowed him to work with the same materials used in the construction of the buildings in which he was called to intervene.