
Jefferson Pinder
Philip Guston Rome Prize
February 3–June 26, 2026
Profession
Professor, Department of Sculpture, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Project title
Spazzino
Project description
Drawing connections among Italian Neorealism, Arte Povera, and the Black Aesthetic art movement of the 1960s and 1970s, I will create a choreographed and interventionist trash cleaning performance in the streets of Rome. I will respond to the role of the Spazzino, or streetsweeper, as black immigrants work in the face of Italy’s waste crisis.