In each chapter, in conversation between the most remarkable artists from Latin-America and Latinxs in the US, and our MOLAA Chief Curator Gabriela Urtiaga, we place the focus on a series or specific artwork which requires a close inspection and deliberate process of contemplation, and exploration; delving into the ideas surrounding the creation of the works, their sources of research and inspiration, in an effort to immerse ourselves in the world of the artists.
This session will feature the artists Chiachio & Giannone and the curator and researcher Leandro Martínez Depietri.
Chiachio & Giannone
(Argentina, b. 1969, Argentina, b. 1964)
Leo Chiachio and Daniel Giannone are an artist duo who were trained as painters but now work together to create hand embroidery and textile mosaics as they “paint with needles”. Both studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón and the Escuela Superior de Bellas Arte Ernesto de la Cárcova. Chiachio worked under Pablo Suarez, Tulio de Sagastizabal, Ahuva Szlimowicz, and Graciela Canero. At the same time, Giannone studied with Sergio Bazán, Teresa Lascano, and Graciela Canero. Their embroidery is a celebration and redefinition of the traditional family portrait, using themselves and their dogs as subjects. They find new, imaginative, and expressive ways of depicting themselves, filled with humor, the fantastical, and the archive of art history. Together they have had several exhibitions including Chiachio & Giannone: Celebrating Diversity at the Museum of Latin American Art, as well as exhibitions across Latin America.
Leandro Martínez Depietri is an Argentine curator, critic, and researcher. He has worked as a producer and curator in the first three editions of BIENALSUR in 2017, 2019, and 2021, collaboratively leading exhibition projects in institutions such as the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Buenos Aires and the Contemporary Art Space in Montevideo, among others. Independently, he has curated the first solo exhibition of La Chola Poblete in Buenos Aires in 2020, the first institutional exhibition of Alexis Minkiewicz at MArCo-La Boca (2019), and the first anthological exhibition of Chiachio & Giannone at Fundación Amalita (2024), specializing in working with contemporary queer artists and in the relationships between the modernist legacy, indigenous imagery, and sexual dissidence in South America. His critical work was awarded by Fundación Proa and the Argentine Association of Art Critics in 2020, and he contributed essays to publications such as the book Silver Rights by Elena Mazzi and the catalog of the exhibition Material Meanings at the Art Institute of Chicago. He holds a Master's degree in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2019) and is currently a PhD candidate in Art History at the University of California San Diego.