February 15, 2017
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ARTINFO Interviews Sandro Chia
Sandro Chia spoke with ARTINFO about New York City in the 1980s versus now and his desire to return to its gallery scene.
In the early aughts, you left New York City to split your time between Tuscany, where you own a vineyard, and Miami, where you maintain a studio. You’ve continued to create work over this time, but this is your first show in nearly a decade. Was it always part of your plan to return to the New York gallery scene? What’s prompting it now?
For me, New York has always been a great experience — spiritually, existentially. When I first arrived in the city, back in 1979, I loved it immediately. New York was completely different then from what it is now; it was kind of abandoned and on the verge of bankruptcy. But it was full of people and was very creative. There was an energy that permeated the city and everything seemed like it was at the beginning, even the galleries. The galleries were not so much about profit, then, they were for the sake of art. Of course, that’s changed now. Galleries need to turn a profit and, by the time I left New York, everything was different. I was not as interested in it anymore. Lately, I felt that it could be interesting to show my new work in New York again, just to see what happens. This city is like a laboratory: Things happen fast, or maybe nothing happens at all! It’s like playing roulette in Las Vegas.
