Paola Pivi

Paola Pivi was born in Milan, Italy, in 1971 and is now based in Anchorage, Alaska. She received the Golden Lion Award at the 1999 Venice Biennale.

Paola Pivi's diverse artistic practice embraces sculpture, photography, video, and performance. Several previous works have also featured large machines, including an overturned tractor-trailer and a helicopter placed upside down. How I Roll is Pivi's first public commission in the United States.

Paola Pivi studied nuclear engineering before turning to art and attending the Academia di Breara. Her work has been shown widely throughout Europe and Asia, and “Donkey" was included in the 2003 Venice Biennale. (It was brought to Brown immediately upon the close of the Biennale.) Pivi was also included in the 2001 Venice Biennale and was awarded the Prize d'Oro. “Donkey" is one of a series of whimsical images by the artist in which animals show up in unexpected places – such as zebras on a snowy mountainside and ostriches in the ocean.

Artist Paola Pivi's work is playful, irreverent and sometimes perplexing. Poetically working with the beauty of the everyday in a range of media, Pivi uses her subtle wit to question attitudes and cultural mores. She challenges her audience to observe and think more freely; unpredictable and astonishing,

she plays a cheerful game with life.

Often the situation and location of each project is central to the concept, as Pivi creates provocative, absurd and fantastic juxtapositions, creating the extraordinary from the ordinary. The resulting images are enigmatic, patently absurd and humorous. When displayed in public spaces, her images surprise and amuse viewers, lifting them.