PORTRAITS OF MY PEOPLE

PRESS RELEASE

Northampton Center for the Arts is pleased to present Mark Guglielmo: Portraits of My People, the Northampton-based artist’s first solo exhibition of his new series of life-size collage portraits exploring the Italian American experience at Barn Door Gallery, 33 Hawley St, Northampton, MA running from April 2—30, 2025.

The opening reception will take place on Friday, April 11 from 5-9pm (coinciding with Arts Night Out), with an artist talk that same night at 7:30pm in the gallery. There will also be a community conversation entitled “Italians and Whiteness in the United States” on Saturday, April 19 from 4-5pm in the gallery featuring the artist, his sister Jennifer Guglielmo (Professor of History, Smith College), and Heshima Moja (Musician, Composer, Sonic Architect). Gallery hours are Wed-Sat 12-7pm, closed Sun, Mon, and Tue. The gallery is fully accessible and admission is free.

Combing through thousands of old, black and white, archival and family photographs, the artist drew inspiration from his childhood growing up in a large Italian American family in New York and from those that came before him. Themes of memory, identity, family, and belonging permeate the portraits. With this new body of work, Guglielmo intends to honor his beloved grandparents Grace and Angelo, who raised 11 children and still held space for him and his siblings. He celebrates this quickly disappearing culture while engaging Italian American identity to spark greater awareness and deeper conversations about some of the most salient issues of our time.

This exhibition is supported by the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts ValleyCreates program, in partnership with MASS MoCA’s Assets for Artists, and The Puffin Foundation.