Rosa Panaro (1935-2022, Italy) worked with materials such as concrete, papier-mâché, clay, and resins. By the late fifties, she had begun to manipulate the techniques learned from her maestro, the sculptor Antonio Venditti, and deviate from post-war abstractionism to find a more whimsical treatment of material and form. Panaro’s use of papier-mâché in particular anticipates the emergence of artistic experiments dealing with the art object and commodification – as later became significant to Pop Art and Nouveau Réalisme. In 1977 Panaro began a series of collaborative activities with feminist collectives such as Gruppo XX and Gruppo Donne / Immagine / Creatività, which produced numerous itinerant actions including “Vaso di Pandora” and “Lavoro Nero – Lavoro Creativo”. During these years she also contributed to the subversive magazine Effe. The first international exhibition of sculptural work by Panaro was presented at SANDY BROWN in Berlin in 2020.

Panaro’s work is included in the collections of Museo Davia Bargellini, Palazzo Bargellini, Pieve di Cento, Bologna; Museo MADRE, Naples; Museo del Novecento, Castel Sant ́Elmo, Naples; ARCA, Museo d Á rte Religiosa Contemporanea, Naples.