PhD in Art History

Ari Lipkis

Ari Lipkis is focusing on Northern Italian architecture from Leon Battista Alberti to Vincenzo Scamozzi, from built works to drawings to theoretical treatises and printed matter. Ari’s research has been on the role of the fantastic or  fantasia, as well as mimesis, in the spread and development of new architectural innovations in the sixteenth century. Ari’s research examines architectural and urban vedute and their utilization by architects as statements about how they aligned their contemporary work with antiquity. Of particular interest are works which foretell the Capriccio before its invention—formally defined by Filippo Baldinucci in 1681, in the generation of artists just prior to Giovanni Battista Piranesi.   

  Ari received his MA in 2016 from the Courtauld Institute of Art; his thesis, “A Holistic Examination of Villa del Principe - Palazzo di Andrea Doria,” focused on Perino del Vaga’s work at Villa del Principe in Genoa. From 2012 to 2015 he was the co-director of TEMP, an art space in New York dedicated to promoting emerging artists. During this time Ari coordinated and hosted twenty-four exhibitions; personally curated six exhibitions and produced numerous events, as well as partnering with organizations like, Independent Curators International, ISSUE Project Room, NURTUREart, Whitney ISP, and the Ad Reinhardt Foundation. In 2018, Ari curated Unbearable Infinite at AALA; the show paired the work of video artist Gregory Bennett with prints from Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Carceri series.  

MA, The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, 2016 
BA, History of Art, NYU, 2011 

Advisor: Tracy E. Cooper, PhD