Between two worlds, an identity in motion
There's a thin line that connects those who leave and those who stay. It's not visible, but it's felt: in everyday gestures, in sudden memories, in a language that changes rhythm but not roots. It's precisely on this emotional border that we move. “Radici/Roots: Celebrating Italian Creativity in the USA”, the collective exhibition of the Italian-American Art Circle (IAAC), hosted at Glenview Mansion Art Gallery of Rockville, Maryland, and opened by March 30 to May 8, 2026.
A project that doesn't just exhibit works, but seeks to give form to a shared condition: that of being Italian far from Italy, without ever truly being Italian elsewhere.
Federica Giove's project: transforming distance into art
The exhibition is based on the gaze and sensitivity of Federica Giove, artist and curator, who constructed this project as one would construct an intimate narrative. Not a theoretical undertaking, but something experienced firsthand.
Moving to the United States inevitably means redefining oneself. For Giove, this transformation occurs through painting, which becomes a space in which to hold onto what risks escaping: the memories, places, and emotions tied to Italy. Radici/Roots was born precisely from this, from the desire to share this experience with other artists experiencing the same geographical and emotional divide.
The result is an exhibition that has the breadth of something collective, but the heartbeat of a personal story.
Italy as memory, America as possibility
Walking through the rooms of Glenview Mansion, one feels as if one is traversing a suspended landscape. The works convey a never-quite-resolved balance: on one side, Italy, evoked as the place of childhood, of inner landscapes, of roots; on the other, the United States, a concrete space of construction, work, and growth.
There's no nostalgia for its own sake, but a constant tension. Memory isn't a refuge; it becomes living matter, something to be reworked. This is where art comes in: as a tool to hold together what's distant, to give form to that feeling of always being a little elsewhere.
Eleven artists, eleven ways of telling their stories
The exhibition's strength lies in the plurality of perspectives. The eleven artists involved— Federica Giove (PEGU), Andrea Limauro, Antonella Manganelli, Elisabetta Marmolo, Maria Elena Moioli, Elena Olivi, Isabella Panizzolo, Davide Prete, Alessandra Ricci, Giacomo Sannino and Rita Tersio —they do not seek a unitary narrative, but construct a mosaic of experiences.
Some, like Andrea Limauro, tackle social and environmental issues, while others, like Antonella Manganelli, move in a more symbolic and visionary dimension. Elisabetta Marmolo's intense figures engage with Maria Elena Moioli's material narratives, while Elena Olivi explores illustration and textiles.
Isabella Panizzolo evokes a luminous nostalgia, made of bright colors and pop references; Davide Prete explores the relationship between form, space, and technology; Alessandra Ricci experiments with techniques and materials; Giacomo Sannino encourages free interpretation and creates a profound emotional connection that transcends the appearance of forms; Rita Tersio sculpts memories, transforming them into a physical presence.
Eleven different journeys, united by a common urgency: to describe what remains, and what changes, when you live far from home.
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- Andrea Limauro – New Sun
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- Maria Elena Moioli_The Keys to the City
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- Davide Prete – Roman Conversation
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- Isabella Panizzolo – The Cricket's company
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- Federica Giove – Mediterranean Reflex
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- Giacomo Sannino – Dreamlike Returns
An exhibition that engages with the community
Roots It does not close itself off within the exhibition space. On the contrary, it opens up to the local area, involving new voices through two open calls: one addressed to students of the Walt Whitman High School and the other to Italian-born creatives in the DMV area.
A natural extension of the project, strengthening its role as a cultural bridge and rooting it in the local fabric. Not only established artists, but also new generations are invited to reflect on the meaning of identity and belonging.
The most direct moment of this dialogue will be the Meet the Artists, expected for the April 19, 2026, an opportunity to meet the artists and hear the stories behind the works.
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- Elena Olivi – Between two Shores
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- Rita Tersio – Whirlwind
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- Elisabetta Marmolo – Under Observance
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- Alessandra Ricci – Empire
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- Antonella Manganelli – Magic Night
Where the roots continue to grow
In a landscape like Washington, DC, increasingly attentive to cultural contamination, Radici/Roots is a necessary project. Not because it celebrates Italianness in a nostalgic way, but because it questions it, transcends it, and brings it contemporary.
What emerges is not a fixed identity, but something alive, in constant movement. Roots are no longer just a starting point, but become tools for orienting oneself elsewhere, without getting lost.
And perhaps this is the heart of the exhibition: to tell that you can inhabit distance without ceasing to belong. That you can leave, change, transform, and continue, in some way, to recognize yourself.
