As late in her career as 2022, Marina Apollonio was playing with new materials. “These were born by experimenting,” she said of works she made that year, “when I found this light aluminum that even came in rolls, like paper.” Apollonio started to fabricate, to invent, “but always following a mathematical geometric programming. It was never something random.” That has been the name of her game in a long career. Apollonio was born in Trieste in 1940, and at the age of eight moved to Venice with her family. She was an Op artist from the start, creating mind-bending paintings, sculptures, and environments, often in circling stripes that seem to recalibrate space. She was championed by Peggy Guggenheim. Apollonio is now 83 and receiving her largest-ever retrospective in Italy, at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Words of wisdom from this rigorous artist? “Everything, from the first thing you do to the last, must have a motivation, must lead to a result.” —Laura Jacobs