Profile

In 1978, my parents brought the family to Rome. My father, being an excommunicated Catholic priest campaigning for re-instatement for married priests worldwide, had a reason for the journey: to meet with the then current Pope. As our plane touched down at Da Vinci Airport, the Pope died. The trip was not a total loss, however. We took in the sights, and even stayed at the Cavaliere Hilton once seen in a James Bond movie. On a side trip to Florence standing in front of Michelangelo’s "David," I noticed something that would have a dramatic influence on my future artistic endeavors. Behind the large right hand of sculpture (the one holding the rock), a small piece of gray tape was stuck to the surface. On the piece of tape was a word written in black ink; it read, “ SCOPRA.” I asked my father what “SCOPRA” meant and he told me with a grin, “to the Florentines, it means to discover, uncover – sometimes like uncovering a secret.” I laughed and told my father that they should “un-cover the entire sculpture with tape because the whole piece of marble was covered with various degrees of dust and soot. At the age of 8, I had envisioned a common repair tactic that often never really solves an inherent problem. That is why it is called a cover-up.

Joe Girandola’s artistic works attract attention to minute details often overlooked in the corrupt rush of modern society. Though classically trained as a stone carver in Italy, he has veered away from marble and granite to concentrate on three-dimensional relief drawings, paintings and found-object sculptures. Duct tape, fiberglass milk crates and discarded objects are used to analyze a culture that is in need of drastic repair. Girandola searches for an unwritten language in works dealing with the methods a civilization creates to band-aid self-inflected flaws: “Ill Communication,” so to speak. Duct tape bandages become a uniquely American media to create paintings representing the “quick fix” mentality prevalent in our society. Interpreting unique architectural landscapes that are rapidly disappearing with a variety of two- and three-dimensional media, Girandola evaluates often-unforeseen mark making and continues to question the role of art making in an increasingly damaged society.

Girandola is a professional artist originally from Baltimore, Md., and has exhibited work at the Museum of Contemporary Art Geffen Contemporary, 1996, Los Angeles; Hope Gallery, Echo Park, 2009; Winslow Garage Gallery, Los Angeles, 2009; Henkel Corporate Gallery, Avon, Ohio, 2009; r3 Gallery, San Diego, 2006; Kunstalle Wien, 2000, Austria; 1997 Kwangju Biennial, South Korea; and the 1997 Atlanta Center for Contemporary Art (Nexus) Biennial, Georgia.

Girandola was assistant director for the Santa Fe Art Institute (N.M.) from 2002 until 2004 and Artist residency director at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Omaha, Neb.) from 1998 to 2002. Recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant for 2003-2004, he maintained a studio in Los Angeles, Calif., and worked in the Sculpture department at Pomona College from 2006 to 2009. In addition to the Pollock-Krasner Grant, Girandola has been awarded an Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Grant; a Change, Inc. Grant; and an Artists Fellowship, Inc. Grant.

Artist Website Link: JoeGirandola.com

Artist Drawing Website Link: Ducttapedrawings.com