June 21

The Upstairs

Varda Caivano, Rebecca Morris, Virginia Overton, Paul Pfeiffer, Elisa Sighicelli, Tabboo!

The longest day of the year, or the summer solstice, occurs around June 21, sometimes the day before or the day after. It is the day the sun reaches its highest point in the sky, traveling its longest path of the year, marking the first day of summer in the northern hemisphere. This June 21 also marks the occasion of June 21 in The Upstairs at Bortolami, an exhibition featuring a constellation of works imbued with light by Varda Caivano, Rebecca Morris, Virginia Overton, Paul Pfeiffer, Elisa Sighicelli, and Tabboo!

Since the Neolithic era, peoples across cultures have observed the summer solstice with ceremony, performing transitory rituals or erecting monuments in its honor. In this temporary monument, twelve artworks line the gallery’s perimeter as if in procession, or like numerals marking the timelines of the day, each one a fleeting undulation in the atmosphere. Keeping time is the ticking of the 16mm film projector casting Paul Pfeiffer’s Sunset Flash on a loop, reproducing its shared moment of celestial serenity, as onlookers enjoy day’s perpetual surrender to nightfall.

Varda Caivano (b. 1971, Buenos Aires) lives and works between London and Madrid. Recent solo exhibitions include Lulu by X Museum, Mexico City (2022); The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2015); Chisenhale Gallery, London (2007); Kunstverein Freiburg, Freiburg (2006). Recent group shows include Spiral Garden, Tokyo (2022); Zabludowicz Collection, London (2020); The National Museum of Art, Osaka (2018); Nottingham Contemporary (2014); and the 55th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia (2013).

Rebecca Morris (b. 1969, Honolulu, HI) lives and works in Los Angeles. Her recent survey exhibition at the ICA LA traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in September 2023. Other significant solo exhibitions have been held at the Blaffer Art Museum, Houston (2019) and Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, Holland (2014), as well as presentations at Made in L.A., Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016); the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art (2014); Wexner Center for the Arts (2018); and The Renaissance Society (2005). Other solo shows include those at 356 Mission, Los Angeles, and LAXArt, Los Angeles.

Virginia Overton (b. 1971, Tennessee) lives and works in Brooklyn. She recently completed a large sculptural commission repurposing the original sign of the Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg as a sculptural installation in the renovated building’s interior. In 2022 she created a permanent installation in the Delta Terminal of LaGuardia Airport in Queens. Recent solo exhibitions include those at the Frist Art Museum, Nashville (2022); Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, London (2022); Socrates Sculpture Park, New York (2018); Don River Valley Park, Toronto (2018); the Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson, Airzona (2017); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2016); The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT (2016); Westphalian Art Association, Münster (2013); and the Kunsthalle Bern (2013).

Paul Pfeiffer (b. 1966, Honolulu, HI) lives and works in New York. His solo exhibition Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom recently traveled from MOCA Los Angeles to Guggenheim Bilbao. Other major solo exhibitions include a retrospective at Sammlung Goetz, Munich (2011); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2009); MUSAC León, Spain (2008); National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2005); Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2003); and the Whitney Museum of American Art (2001). In 2019, as part of Bortolami’s Artist / City project, Pfeiffer curated a group exhibition, Exodus, in the Watergate Office Building in Washington, D.C.

Elisa Sighicelli (b. 1968, Torino, Italy) lives and works in Torino and New York. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Carla Accardi and Elisa Sighicelli, 55 Walker, New York (2020); Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Torino (2019); Museo Pignatelli, Naples (2019); Libreria delle donne, Milan (2018); Museo Civico d’Arte Antica, Torino (2017); Museo d’Arte Moderna, Bologna (2011); and Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Torino (2011).

Tabboo! (Stephen Tashjian, b. 1959, Leicester, MA) lives and works in New York. Recent solo exhibitions include Karma, Los Angeles (2023) and New York (2022, 2020); Gordon Robichaux, New York (2022, 2020, 2019, 2017); and Howl! Happening, New York (2016). His work is currently on view in who’s afraid of cartoony figuration? at the Dallas Contemporary.