Elysian Fields
Jim Dine presents, Elysian Fields, a new, site-specific exhibition in Castel Nuovo during Napoli Contemporanea 2025.
Photo: Daniel Clarke
This fall, Naples sets the stage for Elysian Fields, a monumental exhibition by Jim Dine opening October 10, 2025, at Castel Nuovo as part of Napoli Contemporanea 2025. On view through early next year (February 10, 2026), the artist’s sculptures of oversized heads and monumental bronzes will transform the castle’s historic halls.
With 29 installations woven amongst rarely seen Renaissance sculptures, Elysian Fields invites the public into an immersive encounter where Dine’s classically inspired work resonates against centuries of art and architecture.
As Jim Dine’s longtime archivist, Jeri Coppola has witnessed his work both in the studio and on the world stage. Below, she offers a personal, behind-the-scenes glimpse into the exhibition’s installation and a first-hand reflection on the conversations unfolding between Dine’s new works, centuries of history, and the living pulse of the city.
Photo: Jeri Coppola
Elysian Fieldsby Jeri CoppolaOne of the pleasures of being Jim Dine’s archivist is seeing his work up close. Another is watching it come alive in the world. Last week I had that chance during the installation of Elysian Fields—inside Castel Nuovo, a medieval fortress in the heart of Naples.
Arriving in Naples, you navigate the chaos of traffic and construction, but once you cross the moat into the castle courtyard, time feels different.
Well, almost. Tourists and wedding parties are everywhere—this is Naples, after all—but the weight of its history is undeniable.
Inside the Palatine Chapel, the city noise falls away. You are met by 23 large plaster heads, clustered as if in conversation, inviting you to drift through their ghostly gathering. These are The Elysian Fields. At the far end stands The Gate Where Venus Sleeps, a bronze door, half-open, half-closed, its central Venus figure alternately blocking or beckoning. A bronze chair attached to the gate waits for the weary traveler.
Photo: Jeri Coppola
Artwork: Flowers, 2022, bronze, 85 x 51 in/215 x 130 cm
Around the edges, Renaissance sculptures linger, as if unsure how to greet their new neighbors. This, of course, is what Jim does best: taking history head-on, engaging it in dialogue and making it his own.
There are four more rooms to discover. To the right of the chapel, a dark, cool chamber holds Flowers, a monumental bronze vase from which casts of tools sprout like blooms.
To the left, a passage leads past a stairway toward the dungeon, but first you enter a smaller gallery with two editions of Small Bird With Tool. Lightboxes circle the room at waist height, glowing with one of Jim’s poems, drawing you around the birds.
Photo: Jeri Coppola
Artworks: Small bird with tool, 2024, bronze polychrome, 39 x 25.5 x 29 in/100 x 65 x 74 cm
Next door, a film captures Jim in conversation with his assistants, Daniel Clarke and Olympe Racana-Weiler. It feels like eavesdropping on a familiar rhythm of studio banter and reflection.
Across the way, another room reveals a glass floor that opens to the layers of history beneath—skeletons, stones, fragments. Two glowing sculptures hold a quieter but no less powerful conversation in the dim light.
Artwork: Big Lady on a Beaver’s stump, 2021, bronze, 114 x 40 x 48 in/289 x 101 x 122 cm
Photos: Daniel Clarke
During installation, these moments of beauty were framed by cranes, cables, and crews shifting massive works into place. But soon the labor will fade, and from October 10, 2025, to February 10, 2026, the works will remain, anchored in dialogue with the castle, its history, and with us.
Photo: Daniel Clarke
Click here to learn more about Elysian Fields in Napoli.
