ADD Circle
ADD Hot Dogs
Cake
Not Rodin
Not Brugel
Not Cezanne
Artist Website
The works in Alter/Altar are comprised of objects and images chosen from a wide range of art historical references. Parts and pieces of existing works of art are changed, embellished, distorted and combined with what the artist perceives to be, in some dimension, their antithesis.
Angello’s work is steeped in the roots ofthe Dada and Pop-Art movements which are well known for their tongue-in-cheek admiration of high and low aesthetic culture. In the piece ‘Not Cezanne’, Angello combines a cast of the cracked pavement found outside his warehouse studio with the iconic imagery of one ofPaul Cezanne’s many still life paintings. Cezanne represents a pinnacle of fine art in contrast with the common pedestrian experience of well used municipalities. By toppling the distinction between high and low culture, Angello argues that each are objectively equal in consequence and beauty. ‘Not Aphrodite’ is a fairly faithful reproduction of the ancient greek sculpture Aphrodite of Knidos, by artist Praxiteles. ‘Not Aphrodite’ is coated in fine suede-tex flocking and adorned with casts of peaches from the artist’s lunch. The fusion of ancient and short-lived proxies question our perception of time while the equation of texture, sexuality and hunger begs to be sorted and understood.
Held together with a rigorous formal logic, Angelo’s work attempts to collapse hierarchies of class, time and taste. Freed from their original distinction, symbols of high art are left to consort with the inelegant, the commonplace and the irreverent. Alter/Altar is best understood in a state of suspended logic where tradition and expectation are manipulated like any other material such as plaster or resin. By merging the sophisticated and enduring with the ordinary and ephemeral, Angello builds a version of the world where icons contemplate both their own existence and their end.
Jamie Angello, Bio
I am an independent visual artist and freelance illustrator based in northern California. I earned my MFA from UC Davis in 2015 in Painting and Sculpture. I am known for working in a wide range of media including resin casting, integrated digital media, found objects and oil paint. My personal work is often a direct response to current events and environmental issues that confound, energize and sometimes frighten me. I see the work as my opportunity to realize and grapple with realities far beyond my control.
In addition to showing my work locally and nationally, I create site specific commissions for individuals and businesses such as DGA Architecture based in the Silicon Valley and San Diego. I teach drawing, painting, design and art history at CSU Sacramento and Sacramento City College. I am currently accepting work as a freelance illustrator. Please contact me for more information at Info@JamieAngello.com.