Umberto Mariani

Best known for his complex draperies on irreguIar-shaped canvases, Umberto Mariani's work explores illusions of light and shadow created within the folds of fabric in his work. Mariani's new multi-dimensional works include lead sheets beneath intricate drapery, whereby the fabric both serves to conceal a mysterious object beneath while also evoking its presence. His first monumental narrative work in the 1960s was for St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, and in 1970 exhibited widely in prominent institutions in Europe such as the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels and the Musée Moderne in Paris--