Bruno Gambone’s objects emerged during a decade of extraordinary assimilation, development and advance, not just in the career of this Italian artist but also for the progressive cultural communities in which he circulated, with remarkable conviviality, eagerness and assurance, in New York and Italy. During this period, which began around 1959, Gambone redirected his career from being primarily involved in the production of ceramics in the successful business established by his father 10 years earlier to being an active participant in the avant-garde circles of two countries.
Gambone, therefore, brought to his practice the dual advantage of first-hand experience of two centers of debate and exchange between artists. While resident in the United States for almost five years from 1963, he nonetheless maintained relationships with compatriots in Rome, Milan and elsewhere at the forefront of advances in the physical, technological and conceptual applications of non-objective art. At the same time he was in New York as it established itself definitively as the world’s critical, creative and commercial artistic capital.
New York had assumed its prime position with the arrival of Pop art on the scene at the start of the 1960s with exhibitions by Roy Lichtenstein and the stirring presence on the influential periphery of Andy Warhol. Gambone had been introduced to both artists not long after his arrival and knew Warhol well enough to have had an involvement with Warhol’s film Empire, recorded in the hours between 8.06pm and 2.42pm during the night of the 25-26 July 1964.

From Martin Holman, Perspectives on a Passage of Time A Speculative History of Bruno Gambone’s Journey into Space, text in the catalog

[…]
Your solo exhibition at Galleria del Cenobio in autumn 1967? How did it come about?
I met Alviani in New York. At the time, he was working with Germana Marucelli who I knew well. I made a project for her revolving around the topic of butterflies.
[…]
On that occasion was your choice to create a spatial environment that the visitor could enter the result of the lesson learnt shortly before at Lo Spazio delle Immagini (The Space of Images) experience in Foligno?
The choice of environment came about more out of necessity, rather than as a result of what we did in Foligno, and owing to the historic moment in art. There weren’t many of us who did that type of work. After what Fontana had done, Scheggi, Alviani and Colombo had already experimented spatial environments. I wasn’t invited to Foligno, and straight away after there was another similar experience in Montepulciano. I found the spatial environment stimulating because of the connection it was able to create with the observer, forcing him to take part through the same occupation of space. For example, the shape of the Ara that I presented at the Annunciata meant that the observer could not go along it, he could only observe it. It was an impracticable altar, I wanted to play on the very idea of sacredness.
[…]
How was the Cenobio exhibition received?
It went down very well in Milan, I remember that Guido Ballo took his pupils from the Brera Academy. Germano Celant wrote the presentation of the exhibition for me. It was one of the last things he did before going over completely to Arte Povera. […]

From Carolina Orlandini, Interview with Bruno Gambone, text in the catalog