Slightly polished draft, still needs more work, sorry!
COSMO CAMPOLI
& His
SPUMONI VILLAGE
Which probably contributed to the metamorphosis of
Gallery 1134 into Fine Arts Research and Holographic Center
I never met Cosmo (misspelled above in typical Gallery 1134 style) but I know a few folks who did, and he was pretty much what was depicted above. He was a sculptor of note, rising to the rank of full-time professor at the prestigious Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology. Check him out on Wikipedia.
The sub-title of this page refers to the fact that Loren Billings changed the focus of her Gallery 1134 from avante-garde art to holography as she couldn't take the negative criticism levelled at Spumoni Village as linked below, nor that of her gallery's Inaugural Opening, especially since the most scathing review was by the barb-tongued crusty old curmudgeon Gruff Gus Chicago Daily News veteran columnist, Mike Royko, allegedly a friend of the family. But not for long after that.
The first rumbling of Cosmo Campoli's Spumoni Village in the press is by Robert J. Herguth in the Daily News of May 3rd, 1976, informing us that Cosmo "even designed cookies to be eaten at the opening".
An undated press release for the next big show, Cosmo Campoli's Spumoni Village.
Here is an interview with Cosmo on the Studs Terkel radio show, a few days before the opening.
Cosmo Campoli's "SPUMONI VILLAGE: Your Portrait in Vegetable" created quite a sensation, with critics praising it (Bess Winakor, Chicago Sun-Times, Thursday, May 6, 1976; John Forwalter, publication unknown, June 2, 1976; George Cohen, Chicago Tribune Magazine, June 27, 1976; Harold Haydon, (publication and date unknown), and panning it like Franz Schulze, (publication and date unknown) or even worse, (Alan Artner, publication and date unknown, below'
This is a listing of what other galleries were showing at this time.
But it looks like a splendid time was guaranteed for all at the closing party:
The Progressive magazine publishes an article on Spumoni Village in September of 1976 .
Illinois Institute of Technology News of September 3, 1976, jumps on the Spumoni Village bandwagon.
Here are a trio of artifacts in the collection of Ed Wesly recovered from that show. There are a couple of the cars mentioned by Alan Artner above, made at the Spumoni Village show,. The centerpiece is a dough sculpture festooned with glitter, entitled Apprapo For The Show. Barely visible in the photo are the edges of a partial conical hologram of the dough piece itself, which is worn as a cape in this pose. At the show the holo-cone was hovering over the bread totem head. (Hologram recorded by Tom Cvetkovich, possibly the very first conical reflection hologram!)
Cosmo's holographic description:
May Cosmo rest in peace, and mad-rap into eternity with Loren as his stewardess, wherever they ended up at!
