ROBINSONG
Installation images, press release, and details for the 2016 exhibition of Robinwood.
ROBINSONG
Classic Cars West | 411 26th Street, Oakland, CA
August 4 - September 25, 2016
Opening Reception: Friday, August 5, 6-10pm
Second Reception: Friday, September 2, 6-10pm
Oakland, CA Classic Cars West is pleased to present Robinsong, a solo exhibition by Jillian Piccirilli. This special installation explores one family’s notions of home and the American Dream. Robinsong features archaic mixed media photography, text, sound, familial artifacts, and site-specific installations that immerse visitors in the story of the artist’s family’s bygone home Robinwood. While it is a deeply personal story, the triumphs and tragedies of this clan offer wider resonance through a tale of love, loss, searching, and belonging.
Robinwood was the home of Jim King, a carpenter, and Mae (Carlson) King, an amateaur photographer. With blueprints lifted from the 1946 issue of Better Homes & Gardens, the Kings built Robinwood on Michigan cow pasture land with sweat, luck, and their modest means. And it was the locus of their lives for sixty years. Piccirilli’s mourning after her grandparents’ passings led to this swan song series for these makers and their homestead. Drawing upon Mae’s photographs and the artist’s own, Robinwood lives on in over fifty cyanotypes, each cast with gum bichromate color and handpainted. This special installation of the series at Classic Cars West’s gallery space also features furniture pieces built by Jim and arranged in a special site-specific installation, subtle sound works that hark back to Robinwood’s soundscapes, as well as new prints to the series.
About the Artist : Jillian Piccirilli creates series-driven art grounded in narrative, histories, and collaboration. Often born of a preoccupation with nostalgia and loss, her work seeks to give these personal aches tangible form through imagery that draws upon play and whimsy. She studied art and anthropology at Cornell University, where she was the recipient of the University’s Faculty Medal of Art and Charles Goodwin Sands Memorial Medal of Art. She has exhibited in California, Colorado, New York, and Rhode Island, where her Providence Art Windows public art installation garnered praise in the Washington Post. In 2012, she moved to Oakland, CA, where she maintains a rigorous studio practice. Currently, her work focuses on archaic photographic printing methods that operate at the intersection of photography, painting, and printmaking.
About the Gallery : Alongside their selection of classic vehicles, Classic Cars West hosts locally and internationally known artists in their spacious garage-cum-gallery. Largely installation-based, Classic Cars West’s exhibitions are expansive and experimental in their approach to space and the role of the viewer in the act of creation.
About the Curator : Dasha Matsuura is an Oakland-based independent curator and assistant director of Spoke Art (San Francisco). Matsuura curates three exhibitions a year at Classic Cars West, in addition to serving on the Board of Directors of Oakland Art Murmur.
Classic Cars West
411 26th Street, Oakland, CA
classiccarswest.com
Hours : Wednesday - Friday 5-10 pm, Saturday 11-10 pm, Sunday 11-3 pm
Free & open to the public
Late Summer Exhibition
Opening First Friday, August 5, a very special installation of my Robinwood series will be on view at Classic Cars West.
Opening First Friday, August 5, a very special installation of my Robinwood series will be on view at Classic Cars West.
ROBINSONG
Classic Cars West
411 26th Street, Oakland, CA
Aug 4 – Sept 17, 2016
Opening: Oakland Art Murmur’s First Friday, Aug 5
Featuring new additions to the series and a special site-specific installation. Curated by Dasha Matsuura.
Alongside their selection of classic vehicles, Classic Cars West hosts locally and internationally known artists in their spacious garage-cum-gallery. Largely installation-based, Class Car West’s exhibition are expansive and experimental in their approach to space and the role of the viewer in the act of creation.
Murmur Art Auction
On October 10th, Oakland Art Murmur will be hosting its annual Benefit + Art Auction extravaganza. And a piece from my Robinwood series will in attendance and on the preverbal auction block.
Post-Event UPDATE
I am happy to report that the Benefit was a wonderfully successful event! And am so flattered that there was a very civil bidding war over my piece. Video of the event, with cameos of myself at the check-in table + my piece hanging on the wall. Enjoy!
Artist Profile
In conjunction with the pop-up show of Robinwood, Move Loot has published an artist's profile on their blog.
In conjunction with the pop-up show of Robinwood, Move Loot has published an artist's profile on their blog. Available here >
The exhibition will be on view through the end of November 2014.
Local Artist Profile: Jillian Piccirilli
1. Can you share with our readers a bit about the concept and history behind your Robinwood collection?
Robinwood is an ode to my grandparents’ home in the wake of their deaths and its sale. My own life has been marked by a degree of transience, and their handmade home had been a constant for me. Inspired by blueprints lifted from the December 1946 issue of Better Homes & Gardens, Robinwood was the house that Mae, an amateur photographer, and Jim, a carpenter, built together with sweat, luck, and modest means on northern Michigan cow pasture land; and it was the locus of their lives for sixty years. My Robinwood series echoes their blueprint source through the alternative cyanotype printing process and reflects how they made this template their own with the added warm color layers of gum bichromate printing and hand painting. Creating the series was an effort to both keep the home and also share it.
2. How were these pieces made?
The full Robinwood series is made up of 41 works that chronicle the homestead inside and out. My source material is a combination of photographs that I took, photographs that my grandmother took (she was an amateur photographer who kept a full darkroom in an upstairs closet), as well as snapshots by other family members from our archives. Each piece was first printed as a cyanotype, aka a “sun print” / “blue print,” on the roof outside my West Oakland studio. After the cyanotype was fully developed, I then added a gum bichromate layer, which uses watercolor pigment for the color and the sun again for exposure. Then I hand painted and mounted each image onto a wooden panel. The gum bichromate and hand work was all color coded according to which part of the house the image depicted.
3. How can artwork alter a space?
Art gives a space character and personality. It says something about not only about the occupants’ aesthetics, but their past and their values: Where have they been? Who have they loved? What have they lost? And having the work of a living artist speaks to a support of the visual arts as part of our contemporary culture. From screen prints to oil paintings, there is an staggering diversity of work and price points available in the Bay Area by artists at all career points.
4. How do you select artwork for your own home?
The artwork in our home tends to be rather personal tokens and momentos, alongside works that make us think and make us laugh. In our little kitchen is a teapot print we got while on our honeymoon in Ireland. There are a couple of concert posters that we bought from the amazing publishing house Drawn and Quarterly during a trip to Montreal. There is a tiny nest painting by a friend and colleague. There is a prized photograph of my great aunt (who was the first in the family to attend college) shaking hands with LBJ when she was a part of his administration. We recently moved, and it has been interesting to reflect upon how the art we surround ourselves with has changed over the years as our lives, tastes, and values have evolved. There is one or two token holdovers from the college dorm days; but, for the most part, our artwork selections have grown and matured along with us.
Holiday Pop-Up
Move Loot is hosting a pop-up shop for the holidays, and selections from Robinwood will be on display for November. Check out the work and the shop!
Move Loot is hosting a pop-up shop for the holidays, and selections from Robinwood will be on display for November. Check out the work and the shop:
Move Loot Pop-Up
537 Octavia Street { Hayes Valley } SF
M - F 10 - 8p / S - S 10 - 6p
Artists reception : Sun, Nov 9, 3-6p
ROBINWOOD @ Move Loot
Robinwood Installation
Installation images of Robinwood at Hinterland Art Space (Denver, CO).
Installation images of Robinwood at Hinterland Art Space (Denver, CO). On view September 12 - October 3, 2014.
ROBINWOOD @ Hinterland Art Space
Robinwood at Hinterland
It’s gonna be a party! Opening at Denver’s Hinterland Art Space on Friday, September 12th, 6-11p: ROBINWOOD.
ROBINWOOD
Sept 12 – Oct 3 | Opening Night Reception 6-11p
Hinterland Art Space
3254 Walnut St, Denver, CO
ROBINWOOD
My new series Robinwood chronicles the life of my maternal family’s past handmade homestead. A three-bedroom-two-bath set on northern Michigan cow pasture land and inspired by blueprints lifted from a Better Homes & Gardens, Robinwood was the house that my grandparents Jim and Mae King built together. Being the Kings’ only grandchild, I have created an illustrated ode to the space, which had been a constant against a typical life marked by transience. Through a merging of archaic photographic printing methods and painting that mines the family’s archives and artifacts, I have attempted to mime Jim and Mae’s impulses of creation and sharing. Robinwood is a re-creation and re-telling of the story of the space, which seeks to both contain and extend the homestead’s life.
HINTERLAND
HINTERLAND is Sabin Aell and Randy Rushton. Early 2008 the couple opened the art space, where Sabin curates and exhibits adventurous contemporary art. The term HINTERLAND originates in the german language, has been incorporated into the english vocabulary and means: Beyond what is visible or known.Reflecting on the name, HINTERLAND is explicitly featuring artists who work with extravagant and coherent visions. The art highlighted plays and seduces with compelling concepts within the roam of contemporary art. HINTERLAND shows artists who practice in a variety of medium, including: painting, photography, sculpture, video, glass art, textiles, fashion and design.HINTERLAND is entirely built with reclaimed and salvaged materials. All artists and guests are appreciated who are in resonance with the desire to share, exploit fun and co-create within living as energy efficient as it gets. HINTERLAND is part of the Rino Art District.
New Work, Upcoming Exhibition
Exciting announcement: Denver’s Hinterland Art Space will premier my newest series of photography/painting works this autumn.
Exciting announcement: Denver's Hinterland Art Space will premier my newest series of photography/painting works this autumn.
ROBINWOOD
Sept 12 - Oct 3, 2014
Hinterland Art Space
3254 Walnut St, Denver, CO
ROBINWOOD
A three-bedroom-two-bath set on northern Michigan cow pasture land and inspired by blueprints lifted from a Better Homes & Gardens, Robinwood was the house that my grandparents Jim and Mae King built together. Through a merging of archaic photographic printing methods and painting that mines the family’s archives and artifacts, I have attempted to mime Jim and Mae’s impulses of creation and sharing. Robinwood is a re-creation and re-telling of the story of the space, which seeks to both contain and extend the homestead's life.
HINTERLAND
HINTERLAND is Sabin Aell and Randy Rushton. Early 2008 the couple opened the art space, where Sabin curates and exhibits adventurous contemporary art. The term HINTERLAND originates in the german language, has been incorporated into the english vocabulary and means: Beyond what is visible or known.
Reflecting on the name, HINTERLAND is explicitly featuring artists who work with extravagant and coherent visions. The art highlighted plays and seduces with compelling concepts within the roam of contemporary art. HINTERLAND shows artists who practice in a variety of medium, including: painting, photography, sculpture, video, glass art, textiles, fashion and design.
HINTERLAND is entirely built with reclaimed and salvaged materials. All artists and guests are appreciated who are in resonance with the desire to share, exploit fun and co-create within living as energy efficient as it gets. HINTERLAND is part of the Rino Art District.
Kala40 Exhibition
On view April 17 – 25, Legymer from my Hemland series will be featured as part of the Kala Art Institute‘s annual auction exhibition and gala.
On view April 17 - 25, Legymer from my Hemland series will be featured as part of the Kala Art Institute's annual auction exhibition and gala.
Kala, located in south Berkeley, was the site of my introduction to cyanotype printing and where I recently took a course on gum printing. I am happy and honored to have this work be part of an event to support such a special institution!
Kala 40: Kala Art Institute’s 40th Anniversary Auction & Gala
Saturday, April 26, 6:30–10pm | Preview party: Thursday, April 17, 6- 8pm
Celebrating Kala’s 40th anniversary, this spring event will be a highly publicized exhibition and auction gala featuring outstanding artwork from prominent California artists. Along with the high quality original artworks will be unique art-related items offered through both live and silent auctions.This spring event combines a 10-day exhibition of works by the best and brightest artists currently working in California and culminates in the dynamic Gala Auction on April 26, from 6:30 – 10:00 pm. The exhibition Kala 40 will open with a special preview party on Thursday, April 17 from 6 - 8 pm.
Denver Westword | Exhibition Review
The Denver Westword’s Michael Paglia reviews our Pirate exhibition ITHACA.
The Denver Westword's Michael Paglia reviews our Pirate exhibition ITHACA.Paglia writes: "A smart looking show on display at Pirate combines pieces by three artists who first met in 2006 at Cornell University... Though each is doing something clearly different, they work in compatible styles, so the show is a seamless whole."
On my work:
The west wall, given over to Piccirilli, is tiled with dozens of small cyanotypes altered with wax and gouache. These oneoff prints are collectively entitled "Hemland," with some presented as single panels and others being diptychs or triptychs. These photobased montages combine travel pictures from her visits to the ancestral home of her mother's family in Sweden with images of letters and artifacts. Stylistically, there's a neodada aspect to them, although the chastity of the imagery also gives them a sort of hightech look.
ITHACA exhibition | Denver, CO
Keep Ithaca always in view.
Keep Ithaca always in view.
Getting there is your final purpose.
But never speed up your journey, no.
Better to let it last for many years;
and anchor on the island when you're old;
rich with what you gained on the road,
never expect Ithaca to give you riches.
Ithaca granted you the beautiful journey.
Without her you'd never have taken to the road.
She has nothing left to give you.
Showing at Pirate: Contemporary Art from Jan. 31st through Feb. 16th, 2014, Ithaca is an exhibition of new works by Monique Crine (Denver), Leah Thomason Bromberg (San Francisco), and myself.
The exhibition served as catalyst to fully realize a new series that I had been working through since 2011, exploring my maternal family's relationship to Sweden, where my great-grandparents and those before them hailed.
The full series, Hemland, can be viewed here.
Below, see the work in the context of its premier Denver showing.
*Excerpt from C.P. Cavafy, Poems, the Canon, trans. John Chioles, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011.
HEMLAND @ Pirate: Contemporary Art
Oakland Open Studio
OPEN STUDIO | PRINT EVENT
Saturday, Jan. 25th | 2:30p - 7:30p | 3246 Ettie Street #15, Oakland
I will be previewing my newest work here in Oakland before it travels to Denver for its formal premier at Pirate: Contemporary Art. Hemland, a series of hand-painted cyanotypes exploring my maternal family's relationship to Sweden through travel artifacts and language.
The event will be co-hosted by the wonderful artist Carol Ladewig. She will be opening the flat files, showing and selling a selection of prints in a variety of media. Also on view is her Year in Color series. Come see her newest works documenting 2013, including the most recent incarnation Painting Days. And both of her large Year in Color works from 2012 + 2011 are currently installed!
Announcing Denver Exhibition
Opening Jan. 31, 2014, Pirate: Contemporary Art is pleased to present “Ithaca,” an exhibition of new works by Monique Crine, Leah Thomason Bromberg, and Jillian Piccirilli.
Opening Jan. 31, 2014, Pirate: Contemporary Art is pleased to present “Ithaca,” an exhibition of new works by Monique Crine, Leah Thomason Bromberg, and Jillian Piccirilli.
Currently based on the West Coast, the three artists were first brought together while studying painting at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Their disparate work was, and still is, bound by a commonly held preoccupation with idiocentric family histories set against broader notions of identity, home, and belonging. Each artist’s studio practice shares an interest in the intersection between painting and photography, both as a medium and an artifact. Pairing these forms with highly personal subject matter, the exhibited works are a study in the issues and implications of nostalgia.
Crine’s newest paintings are based on photographs taken of the artist’s father between 1960 - 1970. The work invites speculation into the identity of an individual, while also exploring the aesthetic constructions of formal and informal photography. Bromberg’s current work focuses on the moments of arrival and departure: between life and death, coming or leaving home, packing and unpacking. Her imagery is mined from family photographs and cell phone snapshots, and her story lines draw upon personal experience, her Southern hometown, and her Navajo heritage. And in her recently completed series “Hemland,” Piccirilli translates her maternal family’s experience of their ancestral home Sweden through travel photographs, letters, and artifacts into hand-painted cyanotypes.
Pirate: Contemporary Art is an eclectic and audacious artist-run cooperative gallery, located in downtown Denver for over thirty years. An opening reception will take place on Friday, January 31st, from 6 - 10pm. Pirate is open Friday evenings from 6 - 10pm, Saturday & Sunday 12 - 5pm, and by appointment. “Ithaca” is being shown concurrently with the work of Jason Lee Gimbel in the Associate Space through February 16th.
Pirate: Contemporary Art
3655 Navajo Street, Denver, CO 80211
303/458.6058
Black Box online exhibit
From the Weeds portrait featured in online exhibition…
From the Weeds portrait featured in online exhibition...Since moving West, my artistic focus has been turned to mining new ideas and working with established artists as a consultant / studio assistant / gallery sitter / et cetera. I consider this work to serve as an apprenticeship of sorts. Thus, my energies have momentarily turned away from exhibitions and the such. However, one of the portraits from my From the Weeds series is now part of a modest online exhibition through Portland's Black Box Gallery. Fourth row, third in. Enjoy!
Emak Bakia
I find that periodic doses of surrealist art are quite healthful. It helps keep my pragmatism in check, which can sometimes reach dastardly levels that threaten the art.
I find that periodic doses of surrealist art are quite healthful. It helps keep my pragmatism in check, which can sometimes reach dastardly levels that threaten the art
.This latest infusion of surrealism into my life could not have arrived at a better time. Various projects have wound themselves into awkward, wrenching stalls, and self-doubt was becoming rife. In a recent interview, author Claire Messud articulated something that has gnawed at me since art school and was starting to reach a fever pitch in my thinking: "...the choices that are necessary to make art...are choices to make something that doesn't exist, that no body needs. ... People might be glad you made it once you made it, but before you made it, it doesn't exist. So what's the point?"
And then Surrealism waltzes in, an arrogant and self-affirming partner-in-crime. This angst about creating isn't even worth a dismissive nod. Of course one must create -- of course this world needs more art! Chance, imagination, irrationality, humor -- the salt of life.
Enter Emak-Bakia at the on-going San Francisco International Film Festival. Through "The Search for Emak Bakia," another life is breathed into Man Ray's 1926 cine-poem when Basque filmmaker Oskar Alegria sets out to unravel Man Ray's use of the title phrase, which translates to "leave me alone" in Basque. Through a messy yet beautiful copulation of journalistic intent and surrealist chance, the film proceeds with the most liberal definition of an objective.
La casa Emak Bakia, un film de oskar alegria. from oskar alegria on Vimeo.
This film was thoughtfully recommended to me with my still fermenting Sweden journey project in mind. And, indeed!, it is wonderful fodder while working through the various motivations / objectives / plans for documentation for such a endeavor. Both projects take the form of a journey through travel and time. We cobble together our paths through an artifact-montage of our predecessors' the journeys. We set out with vaguely held objectives, striving to remain open to chance. (Often despite "better" judgement.) And I think that my journey will be all the richer thanks to the work of Alegria.
New exhibit on children's literature: Wardrobes and Rabbit Holes
Now showing at Cornell Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.
Showing at Cornell Library's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections...
Wardrobes and Rabbit Holes: A Dark History of Children's Literature.
November 7, 2012 - March 22, 2013
It promises to be a spectacular exhibit and opens with a lecture by author M.T. Anderson!
Enormous congrats to former colleagues (and always friends) Eisha Prather and Fredrika Loew. It was a privilege to serve as your AC.
The Carlsons of Cadillac / From the Weeds
Showing July 2012
Fine Line Bistro
404 East State Street, Ithaca, NY
Reception: Sunday, July 8th, at 4p
An exhibition of two bodies of portrait works.
The Carlsons of Cadillac : oil paintings of the artist's ancestors based off oral and photographic history.
From the Weeds : the classic scenario of the artist-waiting-tables is laid bare in this on-going portrait series, in which the artist documents her compatriots nurturing their often hidden creative lives in a great range of activities.
Collecting Imagination: Treasures from the Walker Library of the History of Human Imagination
Now showing at Cornell Library's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections!J
Now showing at Cornell Library's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections!
June 7, 2012 - Oct 29, 2012
Hirshland Gallery, Carl A. Kroch Library
Through a remarkable array of rare books, manuscripts, and artifacts from the collection of Jay (’77) and Eileen (’76, ’78) Walker, this exhibition showcases imagination as a driving force throughout history and celebrates the adventure of discovery, learning, and creativity. Collecting Imagination features such treasures as an original Soviet Sputnik alongside a U.S. Vanguard satellite, a cuneiform cone from 2000 BC, and a leaf from the Gutenberg Bible. This exhibit marks the first time an extensive selection of objects from this unique private collection has been on public view.
Click here to view the exhibit website.
Exhibit Project Manager: Jillian Piccirilli
Family Portraits: The Carlsons & Cook
Showing for the month of August at Moosewood Restaurant
Showing for the month of August
Moosewood Restaurant
215 N. Cayuga, Ithaca, NY
*Open Daily*
Two bodies of work that approach family portraiture from different angles: The Carlsons of Cadillac, oil painting portraits of the artist's ancestors based off of oral and photographic history, and Learning How to Cook Everything, an intimate 35 mm color photograph and collage series of the artist's husband's foray into cooking.
Now Showing: Italo in Ithaca
Gimme! Coffee
430 North Cayuga Street
Ithaca, NY 14850
A series of excursions intended to document an overlooked present and a past not told, “…but [contained] like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, the gratings of the windows, the banisters of the steps…”, this project is an exploration of the narratives embedded beneath the surface of Ithaca, New York.
Photography by Jillian Piccirilli / Writing by Mary Thomas
Now with a new website: www.italoinithaca.com