Jeanne Ciravolo is a mixed media artist whose recent exhibitions include the Prisma Prize Exhibition in Rome, Italy; Tokens and Traces, a solo exhibition at Buckham Gallery in Flint, Michigan; and Trio, a three-person exhibition at the Athens Institute of Contemporary Art in Georgia. In 2020 she received the Walter Feldman Fellowship, juried by Ellen Tani, Assistant Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, and her work was selected for the White Columns Curated Artist Registry. She has been awarded residencies at the Hambidge Center, Kimmel Harding Nelson, the Anderson Center, and the Jentel Foundation. Publications of her work include Manifest International Drawing Annual 15, Manifest International Painting Annual 10, and Rejoinder, a publication of the Institute for Research on Women at Rutgers University, in partnership with the Feminist Art Project. Jeanne Ciravolo is an Assistant Professor in Residence and Director of the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery at the University of Connecticut.
"My work honors the histories of trauma and resilient narratives of my close female relatives. Through material and psychological acts of construction and repair—stitching, collage, print, and transfer—their stories materialize shared human experiences of loss and hope. Layers of painted paper reference both the body—specifically skin—as well as the formal language of painting. The layers accrue, constructing form, or are ripped away. In rebuilding the image, the painted paper functions as a poultice. Through acts of patching and decoupage, practices associated with women’s domestic labor and craft, I pursue collage as a female act of repair and re-envisioning.
I often use domestic textiles as substrates to explore the resistance inherent in making do, which connects to female traditions of labor and innovation. Each textile comes with a history. My alterations combine with the existing stains, tears, burns, and bleach marks to locate and magnify the narrative of my female protagonists."
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How do the histories of trauma and resilient narratives of your close female relatives influence your work?
The difficult experiences of the women in my family and their ability to rise above them made a powerful impression on me as a young person learning how to navigate the world of adults. My memories of hours spent with my grandmother and other women in my family listening to their stories as they sewed, worked in the kitchen, or hung wet clothes on the line, are strong imperatives to create.
Can you describe the processes of construction and repair, such as stitching, collage, print and transfer, in your art?
I consider my clumsy stitching a process of drawing with thread. I often carve stamps referencing art historical representations of women and use them as block prints, a repeating visual text, that I layer into a work. In addition to constructing a figure with painted paper collage, I consider kitchen detritus such as net and mesh produce bags and paper doilies as suitable materials to use in a work. I also transfer wet paint from my palette, pressing it onto the surface of my substrate.
How do layers of painted paper reference both the body and the formal language of painting in your pieces?
I create the painted paper in a separate process to indulge in the materiality of the paint. The collection of paper then forms a lexicon of formal elements, color, texture, and mark, which I sift through and employ in constructing my large figurative works. My subject is the female figure. I often apply multiple layers of painted paper, which are like skins, to construct the figures. Sometimes the paper is torn away to reveal layers underneath, which can feel like harm, a flaying of the body.
What significance do domestic textiles hold in your work, and how do they contribute to the narratives of your female protagonists?
Using these textiles as substrates for my work physically locates the women’s narratives in a domestic space. It is a relatively small space that can only accommodate fragments of narrative, like hearing stories which I only partially understood as a young person and tried to piece together.
How do the stains, tears, burns, and bleach marks on textiles contribute to exploring themes of labor and innovation?
The textiles hold within them a history of labor as evidenced by the damage to their surfaces. My work, sewing or collaging narrative fragments within those stains and imperfections, speaks to how my women protagonists economize, adapt, and make do with what is given-- and also thrive within those limitations. Beauty, innovation, can come from a narrow place.
What messages or themes do you aim to convey through acts of patching and decoupage?
The acts of patching and decoupage in my practice represent a piecing together of what is available, making do with what is given, and covering or decorating unattractive realities.
How have your residencies and exhibitions influenced your artistic practice and development?
Meeting other artists at residencies and seeing other artists’ work at exhibitions is personally rewarding, informative to my artistic practice, and contributes to my love of the materiality and content found in contemporary art. As a curator I am often learning about artists work in relationship to creating exhibitions.
