Making Order

Antonietta Grassi and Richard Pasquarelli

Open to the public:

Tuesday, September 30, 2025 - Friday, January 16, 2026

Open hours:

Monday - Friday, 11am - 5pm

Opening reception:

Tuesday, September 30, 6-8pm

Project: ARTspace is pleased to present Making Order, which unites the distinct yet complementary works of Richard Pasquarelli from NYC and Antonietta Grassi from Montreal. Both artists delve into perception and painting, compelled by a psychological drive to impose order on chaos. While drawing inspiration from modernist painting genres, their works express contemporary anxieties.

Antonietta Grassi's paintings emanate from a process that is both intuitive and methodical, emotional and detached. Her canvases undergo a relentless cycle of gestural reiteration, evolving over months and years as she refines compositions, encapsulating the paradoxes inherent in the painting process as both a terrain of exploration and a daily meditative practice.

Grassi's work references the connections between textiles, technology, and the historical contributions of women to early computer systems and coding. Many consider the loom to be the first computer; a standalone machine with the ability to use interchangeable punch cards that was able to perform automated tasks. Abstracted shapes, inspired by discarded objects and obsolete machines, are interconnected by hand-painted lines, forming compositions reminiscent of data graphs in a perpetual state of flux. Grassi's art reflects her exploration of shared technological histories, particularly those obscured by the erasure of female labor forces. Drawing from her family history, where her mother and aunts worked in textile factories, Grassi unveils the reification of forgotten or unseen data. Through the language of modernist abstraction, her work recontextualizes the history of abstract painting, shedding light on the critical role played by female labor in technological advancements.

Richard Pasquarelli’s work actuates a visual language which represents the workings of the human mind. Through analysis of his own symmetry ordering OCD, and research into mental health, philosophy, Pasquarelli seeks to better understand the connections between physical reality and the psyche.

Field research in environments that exemplify the relationships between humanity and our possessions is a major component of Pasquarelli’s practice. He has immersed himself in the homes of those effected by mental health disorders like OCD and hoarding. Although his work has predominantly focused on personal relationships with objects, Pasquarelli is also interested in what

we, as a society, collect and save, the importance we assign to these objects, and what this tells us about ourselves and our place in time. Most recently he has visited the storage facilities of major art museums. These collections, deemed important, but hidden from public view, are stored in handmade boxes within complex, proprietary systems, imparting a sense of importance on the systems regardless of the contents. This research presents him with new insights into human behavior and psychology. These systems are designed for masterful organization and elegant in their simplicity.

Yet, within these flawless systems are anomalies—a box slightly askew, a misaligned drawer, stickies with scribbled notes—traces of an absent, imperfect, human presence.

LINK TO BIOS & ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
High resolution photos available upon request.

Contact:

Leslie Kerby or Michelle Weinberg
projectartspacenyc@gmail.com

projectartspace.com | @project.artspace