Dear ,

The new year started with both us in bed, slain by a rather nasty flu that seems to still be going around. I’m praying for all of you who fell victim to it as well. May the sickness treat you gently, pass soon and inspire. I think getting the flu was the Lord’s way of making us calm down before a year that promises to be exceedingly tumultuous. Exhibit number one: the tardiness of this letter for which I apologize. But speaking of exhibits…

Shows in Miami, Rome and London

While Auriea says she’s not officially represented by HEFT gallery, the two do collaborate suspiciously closely. At Untitled Art during Miami Art Week last December, a booth was built within the HEFT booth to spotlight Auriea’s work. And later this year there will be a solo show in the gallery in New York.

In our home town of Rome, curators Cristiana Parella and Luca Lo Pinto invited Auriea to show her Mystery bricks in an exhibition without walls entitled UNAROMA at the MACRO museum for contemporary art. The show continues until April 6th.

The sumptuous PROPHECY exhibition will be open until March 26th at AREBYTE gallery in London. Auriea is also giving an online talk about the show More about that below.

Meanwhile in Montana

The productive pivot point of this year, already in painstaking preparation during the last, is the exhibition at Tinworks Art in Bozeman, Montana. Auriea will be forging some of her largest sculptures to date inspired by the life and work of Edmonia Lewis, the catholic American sculptor who lived and worked in Rome during Neoclassicism.

VIA Art Fund has granted Tinworks the financial means to enable the creation of this magnum opus. More about that in The New York Times! (paywall)

Ceramics residency

In the historic heart of the Eternal City, Auriea is doing a ceramics residency at C.R.E.T.A. But don’t worry! The idea is to research Egyptian blue paste, also known as faience, to make amulets and sculptures that are somehow connected to the exhibitions at Tinworks and HEFT. A small presentation of the results will be mounted at the C.R.E.T.A. studio on February 27th.

Life drawing and oil painting

To make matters worse, Auriea has returned to life drawing and will try, once again, her hand at oil painting at PADASOR here in Trastevere. She says this is just for relaxation. But we’ll see about that.

upcoming talks and workshops!

Those of you who know Auriea personally will be aware of how it is nigh impossible to shut her up once she starts talking about her passions. Some have decided to take advantage of this weakness.

On February 24th, by invitation of the glorious Valentina Tanni, Auriea will be talking at the John Cabot American University in Rome, also in Trastevere, in a series of talks called Digital Delights and Disturbances. Pray for her!

The following day, February 25th, she’ll be talking to Arebyte in London via the YouTube about PROPHECY with the show’s beautiful curator and Arebyte’s head of programmes Pita Arreola. From 7 to 8:30 pm, local time. Please register to join the online presentation.

And then it’s all over for Auriea’s leisurely sojourn in our Roman home. On March 5th she’ll be in California by invitation of the captivating Morehshin Allahyari to lecture at Stanford University.

But before celebrating the Easter vigil in Jacksonville with her mother and me, Auriea is coming back to Rome to give a digital sculpture workshop at the school of beautiful arts, the Accademia di Belle Arti, from March 17th to 19th, to the class of the mesmerizing Chiara Passa.

I apologize if all this seems a bit impetuous. I’m in the middle of studying for theology exams while simultaneously preparing the launch of the first public beta of The Endless Forest remake. I guess I’m affected by my wife’s tendency towards exuberance. But Lent starts early this year and then I will be able to dial back the bustle a bit. If it were not for the digital ambitions of don Pierluigi. But more about all that elsewhere and at another time.

Allow us to absorb the hullabaloo so that your 2026 can be serene and delightful and inspiring,

the lowly lover of her majesty and magnificence, Michael.