where I came  from, the twentieth exhibition organized by the Rolla Foundation, is a tribute to its founder. A particular exhibition born from a long reflection by Philip Rolla on himself and on his past. These years, marked by illness and isolation led Philip to review those papers that we all accumulate during our lives. Among many memories and surprises he found negatives dating back to 1972. Shots of his California, the places where he spent his childhood and to which many memories are linked. Places that had already changed in 1972, mostly worn out by time and neglect, but which, for him, contain an unchanged dignity to remember.

Philip Rolla this time does not show a part of his collection but a part of his life.

In autumn we will present the biography of Philip Rolla written by Maria Grazia Rabiolo.

Philip Michael Rolla was born 1938 in Madrone, California, a small agricultural town in the Santa Clara Valley. He graduated from Santa Clara University, and on finishing his studies in engineering and economics, understood that his destiny was not in working for a large American company, and decided for Europe.
In fall 1962 he went to Turin and worked for the automobile manufacturer Frank Reisner as an apprentice until 1965. He moved to Canton Ticino in 1966. The proximity to three large lakes, and the presence of Como boat builder Angelo Molinari – whose friendship and instruction were fundamen- tal – made it the perfect place to further develop his interest in marine propulsion, and there he founded Rolla Propellers.
In Ticino he developed friendships with architects and artists – such as Dolf Schnebli, Pierino Selmoni, Flavio Paolucci and many others – thanks to whom he expanded his knowledge of international contemporary art. With his wife Rosella he began collecting minimalist works in the late 1990s, later followed by photography. In 2008 the Rollas reached an agreement with the town of Bruzella, where they live, and were granted rights to use the ex-kindergarten as a private museum dedicated to photography.



Free entry
Sat 21 May from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Sun 22 May from 2:00 to 6:00 PM
every second Sunday of the month
from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM
and by appointment


To request the press kit write to contact@rolla.info

Supported by

Madre Museum 

Curated by Gianfranco Maraniello, Lawrence Carroll is the artist's first anthological exhibition since his death in 2019. Lawrence Carroll (Melbourne 1954 - Cologne 2019) was a major figure in the American art scene and, at the same time, a cosmopolitan interpreter of poetic perspectives that cannot be relegated to the history of the avant-garde and neo-avant-garde movements. His work is not part of a specific artistic trend, but investigates the very possibility of painting after and beyond the primacy of the established schools and theories that dominated the post-World War II period. The display requires an attempt to correspond to the characteristic way in which his exhibitions have been staged, which have always favoured the spatial and sentimental relationships of inhabiting places rather than the chronological succession or the thematic compartmentalisation of works into paralysing classifications, as Carroll himself has claimed, declaring: "In my painting the forms are always changing, their very location in space changes; this restlessness of thought and spirit is what in a certain sense makes my works 'alive' and keeps them moving". The exhibition is realised in collaboration with Lucy Jones Carroll for the Lawrence Carroll Archive.

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