Maurizio Cannavacciuolo's facade installation at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Maurizio Cannavacciuolo has created a site-specific work for the facade of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, titled "A Lecture on Martian History." The installation was inaugurated in recent days and will remain on view until January 9, 2017. Cannavacciuolo is the latest Italian artist to receive this commission, following Stefano Arienti and Luisa Rabbia. The museum, designed in 1896 by architect Willard T. Sears, houses over 2,500 works of European, Asian, and American art collected by Isabella Stewart Gardner. Since 1992, the museum has run an artist-in-residence program coordinated by Anne Hawley, with renovations by Renzo Piano. The facade commission program has previously featured artists such as Adam Pendleton, Hamra Abbas, and Nari Ward. Cannavacciuolo's work reflects diverse cultural influences from his travels in Asia, particularly India and Thailand.