Collector-Curator' at Catherine Clark Gallery
by Gustavus Kundahl

...The divine and the kitchen implement are two powerful themes in Lisa Venditelli’s exploration of traditional Italian feminine roles. Domesticity, family responsibility and "the art of meal preparation" clash with the need to pursue personal aspirations as freely as men are allowed to. "Role models for women range from The Madonna on one hand and Sophia Loren on the other," Venditelli argues. In Mosaic, a humorous twist on the ancient tradition of Tibetan sand paintings, Venditelli made the entire floor of her installation into a crunchy macaroni mandala, the pattern being destroyed, with great exuberance, by opening night attendees. Above the trampled pasta in La Prospetiva Sacramental, Venditelli has arranged her own version of holy rollers, a row of sixteen rolling pins covered in pink satin. In Coronation della Vergina, three wooden boxes contain illuminated figurines of The Madonna and St. Zita (the patron saint of the household) set in red velvet, all aggressively obstructed by large kitchen utensils...

Kundahl, Gustavus, "'Collector-Curator' at Catharine Clark Gallery", Artweek, February, 2000.