Jenna Pirello: Inside and Out

Jenna Pirello Inside and Out

Jenna Pirello

Inside and Out Inspiration of Work Titles: The Song “Love You Inside Out” by the Bee Gees and “Operator” by Jim Croce Jenna Pirello received her MFA in Painting from Yale University in 2014 and her BFA from Boston University in 2011. For her newest body of work, Inside Out and Operator, Pirello transitions between acrylic paint, gouache and silkscreen to meditate on the concept of “home” and on what it is to be grounded in a foundation. The intimate practice of making and viewing this includes the importance of the lyrics, the rhythms, the sounds she listens to while creating - continue to play a big role in Pirello’s creative process. In this new work she grounded her practice in repeated compositions, focusing on color relationships and tonal shifts. This was a deep dive into the process of image making. Also new to this body of work is Pirello’s selfmade frames. These frames expand the surface on which she can play with material, color and mood. This carefully crafted element can also be said to contain the work, like barriers - whether a tarp or sheetrock - that create the walls which make up a home or a grouping of rocks that make up a foundation.

Jenna Pirello currently lives and works in Portland, ME. This is also where she spent her pandemic.

Jenna Pirello Eat My Heart Out, 2019 Acrylic on wood panel 44 x 36 x 1”

Jenna Pirello Check, 2020 Acrylic on wood panel 32 x 24 x 1”

Jenna Pirello MAC, 2020 Acrylic on wood panel 44 x 36 x 1”

Jenna Pirello Inside Out III, 2021 Gouache on paper with an artist designed hand painted wooden frame 14 1/2 x 17 1/2”

Jenna Pirello Inside Out IV, 2021 Gouache on paper with an artist designed hand painted wooden frame 14 1/2 x 17 1/2”

Jenna Pirello Inside Out I, 2021 Gouache on paper with an artist designed hand painted wooden frame 14 1/2 x 17 1/2”

Jenna Pirello Inside Out II, 2021 Gouache on paper with an artist designed hand painted wooden frame 14 1/2 x 17 1/2”

Jenna Pirello Operator I, 2021 Unique silkscreen with hand painted acrylic in an artist designed hand painted frame 34 1/4 x 39 1/4”

Jenna Pirello Operator II, 2021 Unique silkscreen with hand painted acrylic in an artist designed hand painted frame 34 1/4 x 39 1/4”

Jenna Pirello Heat, 2020 Acrylic on wood 32 x 24 x 1”

Jenna Pirello Didn’t I, 2020 Arcylic on wood 24 x 32 x 1”

Jenna Pirello Day Dreaming, 2020 Acrylic on wood 44 x 36 x 1”

The Gouaches Many of us have spent the past year feeling varying degrees of displacement in time and space. The series “Inside Out” is a meditation on the concept of home and of being grounded in a foundation. This winter I transitioned my practice towards a slower, more intimate exploration through small gouache paintings on paper. I used a repeated composition to focus on color relationships and tonal shifts.

The Silkscreens Every new year, I set out to do a series of silkscreen editions as a way of shifting energy for the year to come.

This year, I worked on a small batch silkscreen edition titled “Operator”. Through repetition and thorough planning, I was given an opportunity to form a more in-depth system of image making.

The Frames I added the element of a wooden frame into my process. This brings the paper works into a more sculptural realm. I have always altered the edges of my paintings, either through additive paint or subtractive sanding of the edges to create a more fluid, moldable object. When I create the surfaces of the frames this, again, allows me more space to play with material, color and mood.

JIM KEMPNER FINE ART

Jim Kempner has been an art dealer, based in New York, since 1987. His focus has always been to be accessible to everyone, from the new collector, to the museum curator, to the curious neighbor who walks in off the street. For over three decades he has placed work in major private collections and museums, worldwide. Since moving to Chelsea in the fall of 1997, Jim has created a program that represents nearly 30 artists of different generations, whose work crosses a broad spectrum of mediums, from painting, drawing, and printmaking to sculpture and multi-media installation. Aside from the artists Jim Kempner Fine Art represents, the gallery spotlights work from the mid- to late-20th century. As a leading expert in prints, Jim represents the Dedalus Foundation (Robert Motherwell’s print archive) and has been a member of the International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) for over 25 years.

Jim thrives on the relationships he fosters with his artists and his clients. These relationships have led to many artist commissions and projects such as published editions with Bernar Venet, Paula Scher, Robert Indiana, Charlie Hewitt and Rinaldo Frattolillo, as well as Gianfranco Gorgoni’s photographs of Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. Other significant gallery publications/collaborations include the book Tracks, published in conjunction with the gallery’s 2015 survey exhibition of Rauschenberg’s Tracks series; LigoranoReese’s Line Up portfolio - in collaboration with Dru Arstark (under the name “Madness of Art Editions”) - as well as their 2020 sculpture, The Persistence of Truth. The gallery has worked with Yoko Ono three different times including, in the sculpture garden, her interactive Wish Tree.

Jim Kempner is also the creator/writer/star of the cult comedy web-series The Madness of Art, as well as the artistic creator of three editioned prints.

Jim Kempner Fine Art, on the corner of 23rd and 10th, continues to imbue that old-school art world feel: a place where his artists, clients and neighbors regularly stop by to view great work, hang out for a bit and talk of art, life and the gap between.

501 West 23rd Street

New York, NY 10011

info@jimkempner.com

(212) 206-6872

www.jimkempnerfineart.com