alyssa volpigno

Dec 02

A postcard for Visual Aids: Postcards from the Edge Hosted by CRG Gallery, New York.

A postcard for Visual Aids: Postcards from the Edge

Hosted by CRG Gallery, New York.

Nov 21

Recognition altered yearbook, trophies, and ribbons 2010

Recognition

altered yearbook, trophies, and ribbons

2010

I showed this series of work at the IVA Fall Show at UW. November 20th - 28th at the Sandpoint Gallery. Above: Big Game Collage 8” x 11” 2010 This artist statement accompanied the work. My intention is to combine imagery from modern fashion magazines with imagery from past eras, to be at one moment nostalgic, and at another moment, critical of the contemporary. John Berger states in his 1978 mini-series Ways of Seeing, a woman is “taught to survey herself constantly.” Historically, this notion has been relevant in a variety of ways, and currently applies to the way I relate to fashion magazines.  I am interested in anonymity in portraiture and in actively eliminating the face. Much of the sources for collage I work with were discarded by their previous owner and lived another life before I found them. I am interested in how to appropriate material that should have sentimental value to someone, but instead has been cast aside. This idea that someone discarded old photos, yearbooks, and memories, evokes in me senses of disconnect to the unknown faces and names I encounter in the material.              I am inspired by the Dada artists of the early 20th century. Although the Dada artists intended to create “anti-art” through their collages of newspaper and advertisement materials, they created a new visual language for art.  The raw, gritty, unfinished aesthetics of Dada work inspire me to leave my own work “unpolished” in the traditional academic artist sense. Hannah Hoch is especially inspiring to me because she not only worked in photomontage and collage, but much of her work reveals her thoughts regarding the role of women in her time and society.             I am very interested in what other contemporary collage artists are making and what kinds of source material they are using to convey their voice. John Baldessari, who works in collage, masks the identity of figures in his work in a way that I find personally interesting and inspiring. I am also interested in Ruth VanBeek, a collage artist from the Netherlands who interprets the material of paper in a variety of ways to make a diverse body of work. She has a way of cropping literal images of people and animals to make them into more abstracted objects. Raul Lazaro also is skilled in cutting up and re-assembling the images he uses to make his inventive compositions, while incorporating anonymous figures.

I showed this series of work at the IVA Fall Show at UW. November 20th - 28th at the Sandpoint Gallery.

Above: Big Game

Collage 8” x 11”

2010

This artist statement accompanied the work.

My intention is to combine imagery from modern fashion magazines with imagery from past eras, to be at one moment nostalgic, and at another moment, critical of the contemporary. John Berger states in his 1978 mini-series Ways of Seeing, a woman is “taught to survey herself constantly.” Historically, this notion has been relevant in a variety of ways, and currently applies to the way I relate to fashion magazines.

 I am interested in anonymity in portraiture and in actively eliminating the face. Much of the sources for collage I work with were discarded by their previous owner and lived another life before I found them. I am interested in how to appropriate material that should have sentimental value to someone, but instead has been cast aside. This idea that someone discarded old photos, yearbooks, and memories, evokes in me senses of disconnect to the unknown faces and names I encounter in the material. 

            I am inspired by the Dada artists of the early 20th century. Although the Dada artists intended to create “anti-art” through their collages of newspaper and advertisement materials, they created a new visual language for art.  The raw, gritty, unfinished aesthetics of Dada work inspire me to leave my own work “unpolished” in the traditional academic artist sense. Hannah Hoch is especially inspiring to me because she not only worked in photomontage and collage, but much of her work reveals her thoughts regarding the role of women in her time and society.

            I am very interested in what other contemporary collage artists are making and what kinds of source material they are using to convey their voice. John Baldessari, who works in collage, masks the identity of figures in his work in a way that I find personally interesting and inspiring. I am also interested in Ruth VanBeek, a collage artist from the Netherlands who interprets the material of paper in a variety of ways to make a diverse body of work. She has a way of cropping literal images of people and animals to make them into more abstracted objects. Raul Lazaro also is skilled in cutting up and re-assembling the images he uses to make his inventive compositions, while incorporating anonymous figures.

Take a Picture it Will Last Longer Collage 8” x 11” 2010

Take a Picture it Will Last Longer

Collage 8” x 11”

2010

Photo Shoot Collage 8” x 11” 2010

Photo Shoot

Collage 8” x 11”

2010

Paparazzi Collage 8” x 11” 2010

Paparazzi

Collage 8” x 11”

2010

Nov 20

Espana  Collage 8” x 11” 2010’

Espana

 Collage 8” x 11”

2010’

Nov 17

Don’t forget…

More (and more organized) work of mine is on:

http://sites.google.com/site/alyssavolpigno/

My tumblr is most current though.

Nov 08

“Ink Blots Series” 2” x 3” 2010 My grandma gave me my great-grandpa’s souvenir postcards for me to collage with. After being ripped from the pages of a black photo album, the glue dots and paper residue on the backs of the images was more beautiful than the landscapes. 

“Ink Blots Series”

2” x 3”

2010

My grandma gave me my great-grandpa’s souvenir postcards for me to collage with. After being ripped from the pages of a black photo album, the glue dots and paper residue on the backs of the images was more beautiful than the landscapes.