About the artist:
Artistically, Patrizia’s interests have always manifested with the human form, more specifically with faces. Although she has strong abilities to capture a likeness, traditional portraiture was never her goal. It was always more about portraying something deeper, more emotional or philosophical about being human. Through the eyes of her subjects she hopes to speak to the viewer on things pertaining to the human condition, the workings of the human brain, the individual on the inside vs. the one perceived on the outside, our connection to each other, the word we inhabit, the universe and our purpose in it.
In more recent years, starting just after the birth of her daughter, these ideas began to culminate into thoughts around circumstances we are born into. From the time we are conceived others have expectations of who we are. We “come with” a socioeconomic background, a cultural identity, stereotypes, gender norms, drug addictions, mental illnesses and so much more all built into us by the people in our family histories. These things we “come with” some wear with pride and some struggle to remove, improve or change their entire lives.
So, what’s with the collars (you might still be wondering)?
Patrizia’s interests in art stared at a young age being marveled by the Italian Masters. She saw images in books on a small bookshelf in her parent’s Italian –American home. Her interests in art grew as she did and she inevitably studied traditional methods and the techniques of the Masters. On museum visits she found herself constantly drawn to portraits painted in the mid-16th to mid 17th century by various Western, Central and Northern European Masters of people wearing ruff collars. Her fascination with the historic article of clothing led her to research its purpose and began to uncover what was drawing her to it.
Education/ Grants/ Teaching:
Patrizia Vignola is a native New Yorker who now lives and works in Minnesota. She earned her MFA in Painting from the New York Academy of Art and her BFA in Illustration from FIT. She also studied in Florence, Italy where she focused on the drawing and painting techniques of the masters.
She has been the recipient of the following grants: an Original Work Grant through NY Foundation for the Arts and Staten Island Arts, the DCA and Staten Island Premier Grant, JPMorgan Chase Arts in our Communities grant and the Su Casa Teaching grant. In addition she won first prize for Creative Story Telling in Painting from the Edelman PR Firm.
Patrizia has extensive experience teaching art to people of all ages and levels including: teaching artist residencies in NYC Public Schools, JCC’s in NY and NJ, a high school gifted and talented program through Middlesex County Collage, St. John’s University, the New York Academy of Art Continuing Ed program, and currently Shattuck-St. Mary’s College Preparatory School in Minnesota.
Patrizia’s work has been in solo and group exhibitions throughout the US.
Artists Statement on current work:
Most people will think of a ruff collar as simply a prominent, decorative accessory worn by the royal or affluent in Elizabethan times. When I see it, I see something else, something more. The ruff collar has become a strong symbol and conduit for me as well as a continuous source of exploration in my work.
A collar; it is worn & it is taken off. It is an object and a metaphor. It can be a symbol of dignity and pride or something confining and forced upon. Either way, it is not often easy to remove. Self-worth is often and mistakenly defined by money and a show of wealth through superficial things. The ruff collar is just one of these things in human history.
We are all born into very individual circumstances. We are born into the lives of other people (parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles’…etc.) all with ideas and expectations of who are or who we will become. Whatever they have done with their lives, whatever socioeconomic standing they have, emotional and physical states they are in, mental illnesses and addictions they suffer, it all becomes part of a “collar” we are born with. Some people wear it with pride and honor and others live their entire lives trying to remove, improve or change it.
“The Ruff was an article of clothing worn in Western, Central and Northern Europe from the mid-sixteenth century to the mid-seventeenth century. The stiffness of the garment forced upright posture and their impracticality led them to become a symbol of wealth and status.”
–Wikipedia
CV
Education
MFA, The New York Academy of Art, NY, NY
BFA, Fashion Institute of Technology, NY, N
Special Studies in Master Drawing and Painting Techniques, Polimoda, Firenze, It.
Selected Exhibitions
2019-20 Fleur De Lis Gallery, Faibault, MN
2016 Solo Exhibition, “Ruffed” Staten Island Museum
2015-16 My Favorite Things, Panepinto Galleries, Hoboken NJ
2015 Inspired, Noble Maritime Collection, Staten Island, NY
2014/16 One Billion Rising Winter Haven, Polk State College, Lakeland, Fl.
2013 Summer Exhibition, Allegra LaViolla Gallery, NY, NY
2015 Take Home a Nude, Annually since 1995, Sotheby’s, NY, NY
2012 I’ve Got a Secret, Forbes Gallery, NY, NY
2010 Babies and Patterns, Solo Exhibition, Art Lab Gallery, Staten Island, NY
2010 Generational Portraits, Solo Exhibition, SHOW gallery, Staten Island, NY
2008 Contours of the Figure, Frederick Gallery, Allenhurst, NJ
2005 Out of the Academy, Art Lab Gallery, Staten Island, NY
2001 Faculty Exhibition, The New York Academy of Art
1999 Three Figurative Artists, Bill L. Parks Gallery, Chicago Ill.
1998 A View of Youth, Solo Exhibition, Gallery on 2nd, NY, NY
Grants, Awards, Residencies
2015-16 Su Casa Teaching grant, Staten Island Arts
2015-16 Original Work Grant, Staten Island Arts
2014-16 One Billion Rising Juried exhibition, second prize
2014 The League Residency at VYT. Dec. 2014, Sparkill, NY
2014 First Prize, Creative Storytelling in Painting, Edelman, PR Firm
2010 DCA and Staten Island Arts Premier Grant
2009 JPMorgan Chase/ Staten Island Arts, Arts in our Communities Grant