Jago unveils marble sculpture 'Look Down' in New York with Whoopi Goldberg

Italian artist Jago (Jacopo Cardillo) has installed his marble sculpture 'Look Down' at Thomas Paine Park in New York, with a public unveiling attended by local officials and actress Whoopi Goldberg. The work, first shown in Piazza del Plebiscito in Naples in 2020, depicts a sleeping child curled up on itself. Installed on July 17 and on view until October 2024, the sculpture was inspired by the artist's 2018 visit to New York, where he observed many homeless people sleeping on the streets. Jago reflects on how homelessness has become so common that it breeds indifference, and notes that every homeless person was once a child with parents and a starting point in life. The work has previously been exhibited in Naples, Fujairah (UAE), Rome near the Colosseum, and Palermo's Palazzo Reale. Jago, born in Frosinone in 1987, works primarily in marble and was selected by Vittorio Sgarbi for the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011. In 2016 he held his first solo show in the crypt of the Basilica of Santi XII Apostoli in Rome. He exhibited at the Armory Show in New York in 2018 and 2019, and in 2019 completed 'Figlio Velato' sculpted from Vermont Danby marble. That same year, he became the first artist to send a marble sculpture to the International Space Station as part of the European Space Agency's Beyond mission. The article notes that Jago is considered by some as a new Michelangelo, while others view his work as a communication operation with little to do with art.