He was my primary mentor and a huge influence on generations of artists that came through MICA. Something almost mythical and very gregarious, outspoken and just an amazing human being. Incredible stories about some of those things. At times he would mix all kinds of strange chemicals. I mean, my God, the time that he was burning tires in here and we were pushing black smoke out into the atmosphere, and the fire department showed up and they were really furious with Sal.

So after Rita married Buzz, she moved out of the space and Sal, who knew Rita, moved in.ĪZ: After Sal moved out, and Sal had taken me to Italy five times during the years that I worked here in the Cork Factory as his assistant. One of the people that came to buy a painting was Buzz Beler, the owner of the Prime Rib complex. But evidently she was built like nobody’s business. She was known for painting giant canvases up here in the nude and leaving the studio door open. I never saw her but I heard a lot about her, her and her wild hair. Quite an interesting space.īut after MICA moved out of the building, a well-known painter -Rita Beler, a fabulous beauty, from all accounts. And Weant, in and of itself, is quite an amazing old-time, from-another-age printing press. Before it moved into a more permanent location, it was rented here from Weant Press. This is where the Maryland Institute’s graduate program began some years ago. As one collector in New York said, “Whenever Sal walked into the room, he sucked all the air out of it.”īut back to the origins of the Cork Factory itself. For those that ever knew him, he was a legend. I was Sal’s last and longest lasting assistant. But at one given point, he had over half a million dollars’ worth of art in this space, which are all now in major collections. I installed his seventh appearance at the Venice Biennale and I think it was 1991, 1992, something like that. A lot of amazing people have come through this place because of Sal. I worked eight years as his assistant here in the Cork Factory.Īt that time, Sal’s central studio was in this place. And Sal is still much more famous in Europe than he ever was in America. Internationally acclaimed Arte Povera artist who was with Leo Castelli Gallery in New York. Ended up becoming the assistant to Salvatore Scarpitta, who was the artist in residence at MICA for about thirty years. I came to Baltimore in 1988 for grad school. I’m Al Zaruba, sculptor, visual artist, and teacher at the Maryland Institute College of Art. This place has quite an amazing history as the Crown Cork and Seal complex, where the bottle cap was invented and a bunch of other good stuff. AZ: So here we are in the Cork Factory on the top floor of the penthouse, as you would say.

Waxworks cork