Italian artist Marina Sagona opens Foyer Gallery in her New York apartment during lockdown

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Italian artist Marina Sagona (born 1967 in Rome) opened a gallery in the hallway of her Upper East Side apartment in New York on April 2, 2020. Called Foyer Gallery, it is both a physical space and a virtual one accessible via Instagram. The first exhibition, Eden (2017), featured gold-painted objects and ceramics arranged on blue shelves, with daily Instagram videos pairing each object with a song and a thank-you note to doctors, nurses, her father, and her mother. The second show, Couscous, opened April 28 and is ongoing, using video stills and daily posts to construct an intimate self-portrait through words and images related to her father's cooking. The third and final show, Ubi Consistam, opens May 28, featuring ten red enamel casts of internal organs and sense organs, exploring identity through absence. Sagona conceived the project out of a desire for physical engagement with art during lockdown, and plans to close the gallery when isolation ends, hoping for a return to traditional art spaces.