On January 8th, 2026, visit the ICAA's historic Cast Hall and celebrate the exhibit The Garden, The Source: Nature and Symbolism in the Art of Elisa Bertaglia and Gabriele Grones.
Using the ICAA’s collection as artistic nourishment for their work, Gabriele Grones and Elisa Bertaglia activate the objects and the Cast Hall in its most historically accurate and essential function: as a space for artistic learning, exploration, and creation. The two artists spent over a month as artists in residence at the ICAA's gallery, and as such their work is inextricably linked to the plaster sculptures on view. Grones focused on several casted relief panels of botanical ornamentation from the Ara Pacis, creating highly researched images of acanthus leaves informed by observing precedents from the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. His paintings are masterworks in realism, underscoring the beauty of abstraction that occurred during antiquity in transforming the image of the acanthus from botanical specimen to symbolic representation. His works thus offers a fascinating counterpoint to the narrative of abstraction as something inherently modern or removed from classical traditions, as he unmakes these symbolic representations, reveling in the beauty of the literal plants that inspired ancient artists. Given that so much of classically informed artistic training reveres classical design as a paradigm of realism, Grones cunningly reconsiders that assumption.
In a thoughtful accompaniment to Grones’s work, Bertaglia’s works revel in and further the abstraction that classical designers embraced, and her works explore dualities that emerge from this conceptual exploration. Her works are filled with detailed drawings of woven trellises of vines and plant material, under which she nestles finely detailed drawings pulled from the ICAA’s casts. This duality between seeing and obscuring, the dreamlike and the tangible, center around her usage of the ICAA’s cast of Hypnos, which she employs as the centerpiece in one site-specific sculptural work. These dualities, when framed through Hypnos as the goddess of sleep and dreams, appear almost more as thresholds, moments for the viewer to slip easily between symbolism and realism, the dream state and the tangible.
Elisa Bertaglia (1983 - Rovigo, Italy) is an Italian visual artist based in Brooklyn who, in her artistic research, freely pursues layers of experimentation by using changing mediums and techniques. Despite starting her career primarily as a painter, in recent years Bertaglia’s practice has become more eclectic and experimental, leading her to create wall drawings, sculptures, ceramics, installations, large or small scale paintings, and site-specific projects.
Bertaglia has presented her work internationally at various venues, galleries and museums including: Hic Sunt Leones, solo show, Palazzo Madama, Turin, Italy (2020); CAF - Nebula, Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan (2019); Cendriers, MZ Galerie, Augsburg, Germany (2019); Progetto Borca, Borca, Italy (2014); 54ma Venice Biennale, Academy Pavilion, Arsenale, Venice, Italy (2011); Art and Science, Guggenheim Museum, Venice, Italy (2010). Her work has been selected for various awards including the Exibart Prize (Rome, Italy); Arte Laguna Prize (Venice, Italy); Sunny Art Prize (London, United Kingdom); OTTN (Milan, Italy); Bevilacqua La Masa (Venice, Italy). Bertaglia has participated in artist residencies such as RU Residency Unlimited (Brooklyn, USA); ESKFF, at MANA Contemporary (Jersey City); Kunstraum LLC (Brooklyn); Dolomiti Contemporanee and Progetto Borca (Italy). Her works are in selected permanent collections such as the Collection City of Milan, Banca Sistema and Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation.
Gabriele Grones (1983- Arabba, Italy) is a painter and visual artist whose work investigates the complex relationship between reality and the expressive codes of art history. His oil paintings focus on specific themes such as natural elements, human figures, and carefully arranged objects. His depictions of plants and grasses are marked by a close, intimate gaze that meticulously reveals the subtle details and layered complexity of the natural world. In his portrait series, Grones draws on iconographic traditions, portraying the same subjects in different poses and lighting conditions. This precise, repetitive observation evokes the rich atmosphere of early Flemish portraiture and the contemplative quality of metaphysical painting. In selected projects, he expands his practice through installations that place his paintings in dialogue with one another. By juxtaposing seemingly unrelated elements, these compositions create unexpected connections and open up new interpretive possibilities, inviting viewers to engage in a symbolic reflection that bridges image and personal experience.
Grones has participated in two editions of the Venice Biennale: Atelier Aperti in 2005 and Lo Stato dell’Arte – Art Academies Pavilion in 2011. In 2021, he showcased a major solo exhibition at Ca’ Pesaro – The International Museum of Modern Art in Venice. Grones has exhibited at numerous esteemed venues, including the National Portrait Gallery (London, United Kingdom), the Royal Society of Painters (London, United Kingdom), MEAM Museum (Barcelona, Spain), MART Museum (Rovereto, Italy), Palazzo Fulcis Museum (Belluno, Italy), Fort Wayne Museum (Fort Wayne, IN), the Museum of Arts (Cluj, Romania), the National Museum of Fine Arts (Valletta, Malta), and Volkskunstmuseum (Innsbruck, Austria). He was nominated for the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London in 2008 and won the Level 0 Prize from Ca’ Pesaro, the Museum of Modern Art in Venice, in 2020. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
The Garden, The Source: Nature and Symbolism in the art of Elisa Bertaglia and Gabriele Grones is on view at the ICAA's Cast Hall from December 1st 2025-January 10th, 2026. It is open to the public by appointment Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm. Please email [email protected] to make an appointment.
Special Thanks to our Lead Cast Hall Exhibition Sponsor: Jared Goss