Val Sivilli
Milford, New Jersey
Val Sivilli is a painter, printmaker, writer, musician and educator seeking to reveal that FERAL BEAST living just beneath the surface of the human animal.
MessageVal Sivilli • BIO
Originally from Brooklyn then Long Island and then Brooklyn again, I currently reside in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. These days, I am building ‘The Civilian School of Art’. It will combine my experience as an art foundation educator and small business entrepreneur into a series of courses delivering excellent and accessible artistic skills in a virtual and affordable environment. On a good day, I can be found playing my accordion somewhere, yet I tend not to stray too far from the banks of the Delaware River in Western New Jersey.
TEACHING
I teach in the Visual Arts Department at many Universities, Colleges and Art Centers (CV) Since 2003, I have taught at both Bucks and Raritan Valley Community Colleges. I currently teach studio classes both online (via Canvas) and face2face. My current roster of courses include Color Theory, Drawing 1&2, 2D Design, Screenprinting, Book Arts, Monoprinting & Relief.
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT THROUGH GRAPHIC DESIGN
After a 2-year run as the director the coop, The Steamroller Gallery, I adopted Civilian Art as my identity as a T-shirt and graphic designer. While living and working in Frenchtown, New Jersey, I became totally immersed in my community by engaging in the local schools, youth, and professional organizations through a large variety of locally produced art related projects, exhibitions, auctions, youth projects and civic associations. Civilian’s graphics became the face of many of Frenchtown's events including Riverfest and Bastille Day. As the founder of The Hunterdon Art Tour - THAT, a self-guided tour of artist studios throughout Hunterdon County, I served on the board until 2021 branding and creating all of THAT's graphics.
MENTORS
During my 2 years as a Graduate Student at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers, I both taught Screenprinting and was the head of the Printshop. Antonio Frasconi was my mentor at SUNY Purchase. Val Cushing and Wayne Higby guided me through ceramics at Alfred University with Jesse Schefrin and John Wood as my printmaking instructors. Between undergrad and graduate school, I lived in NYC traveling and working with both Leon Golub and Nancy Spero printing Leon's etchings at the The Bob Blackburn Printmaking Workshop
Statement
Artist Statement • Defining Moments • Val Sivilli
I am interested in how and why we recall specific events and how our memories serve to define us. My work incubates within a tentative moment that can be triggered by a simple event. It could be triggered by politics, a podcast, a family drama, a death, an injury or something funny. When something in the current moment sparks a memory of a past event, it is as if a map is lying beneath both events, current and past. I am being called upon to find the threads. It is almost as if I am being beckoned to locate the connective tissue because it is never just one single thread. It is a meandering, wild landscape of connectivity lying in wait for me to create something understandable from its feral nature.
In this moment a story gets written, drawings get sketched, images get cropped, dissected, sewn, destroyed. Decisions get made. Am I painting? Am I writing? Am I drawing? Deciding on the path will help me to stitch these threads together. Through the process, the reasons begin to surface. When a confusing journey lands in a logical place, I know I am on the right path for the work to evolve.
“THE NECKLACE” is a story written in 3 PARTS:
The Feral lies just beneath the surface of the Human Animal. The 6-foot portrait series entitled “BEAST” presents our angst ridden friends at human scale. People collect animals. We collect them in zoos, in our homes, in our stories, in our popular culture. We transform them into digestible versions of what they truly are. We try to humanize them. We observe animals in endless documentaries. We enslaved them to perform in the Circus. We infuse them with human traits through our movies, animations and literature. We give them language skills, put clothing on them. We use them as symbols possessing mystical powers. We associate them with religious piety. We interact with them in our myths and fairy tales. We attempt to domesticate them. Yet, ultimately, the animal is un-tame-able. This un-tame-ability is reflective of the un-tame-ability of the planet itself. This un-tame-ability is nature. And ultimately, we are made of that same stuff of nature. The beast can speak truth to power. Animals mirror truth back onto the self. By not fearing wildness, but rather accommodating it, I believe we can create more balance in ourselves and our planet. Through my work, I strive to understand this better.
The CAT FIGHT paintings capture the moment when stillness becomes intention. Observing animal behavior through the eyes of a human is a great signifier. Those are absolutely crazy moments of deadly growls and vicious attacks. A power-play between cats is a subtle yet terrifying game of who is protecting who and why. This intimidation and submission flips and flops back and forth. It is like a game, yet it is also not. The domination and the submission and the fear and the tomfoolery. Those stressful moments that almost appear to be taunts, flirts and then attacks. These images are screen shots taken from YouTube videos that people record and upload and then watch. They are unseemly, terrifying and sometimes deadly. I never am able to watch it through to a really violent end. It’s the taunting and teasing and intimidation that interests me most. The Feral lies just beneath the surface of the Human Animal. In this case, the composition and the color make a violence civilized.
The Assassin (sight) paintings are inspired by the women of the circus. These women chose to live a life not limited by societal options. The circus is ferocious and is made of sweat, flesh, ritual and community. The visual fanfare of the circus has sparked the muse for centuries and as well, it has sparked mine. The circus is a window into the perplexing state of my country and exposes the seedy nature of our politics. The jester was the original spokesperson for “Truth to Power” speaking freely, in verse and without overt fear of retribution. art forms – painting, performance, theater, film, silkscreen, etc. The women in these paintings confront the viewer, call them on shortcomings, repetitive patterns and limitations. They call to task – to act, to think, to stop and ultimately, to redirect.
Embedded in the images of the Wild Boar lives the possibilities of a vast symbol system. There are environmental issues, explorations of the self, explorations of relationships, food, the land, as well as formal concepts to be explored. This incredibly fertile territory is conceptually riveting. The Wild Boar/Pig and all of its incarnations on this planet speak to multiple levels of metaphor with many levels of association. Their survival and fecundity in the face of overt hatred of their presence is baffling. They are smart, loving, fierce survivors. Beautiful is the ugliest most engaging way.
Val Sivilli • BIO
Originally from Brooklyn then Long Island and then Brooklyn again, I currently reside in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. These days, I am building ‘The Civilian School of Art’. It will combine my experience as an art foundation educator and small business entrepreneur into a series of courses delivering excellent and accessible artistic skills in a virtual and affordable environment. On a good day, I can be found playing my accordion somewhere, yet I tend not to stray too far from the banks of the Delaware River in Western New Jersey.
TEACHING
I teach in the Visual Arts Department at many Universities, Colleges and Art Centers (CV) Since 2003, I have taught at both Bucks and Raritan Valley Community Colleges. I currently teach studio classes both online (via Canvas) and face2face. My current roster of courses include Color Theory, Drawing 1&2, 2D Design, Screenprinting, Book Arts, Monoprinting & Relief.
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT THROUGH GRAPHIC DESIGN
After a 2-year run as the director the coop, The Steamroller Gallery, I adopted Civilian Art as my identity as a T-shirt and graphic designer. While living and working in Frenchtown, New Jersey, I became totally immersed in my community by engaging in the local schools, youth, and professional organizations through a large variety of locally produced art related projects, exhibitions, auctions, youth projects and civic associations. Civilian’s graphics became the face of many of Frenchtown's events including Riverfest and Bastille Day. As the founder of The Hunterdon Art Tour - THAT, a self-guided tour of artist studios throughout Hunterdon County, I served on the board until 2021 branding and creating all of THAT's graphics.
MENTORS
During my 2 years as a Graduate Student at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers, I both taught Screenprinting and was the head of the Printshop. Antonio Frasconi was my mentor at SUNY Purchase. Val Cushing and Wayne Higby guided me through ceramics at Alfred University with Jesse Schefrin and John Wood as my printmaking instructors. Between undergrad and graduate school, I lived in NYC traveling and working with both Leon Golub and Nancy Spero printing Leon's etchings at the The Bob Blackburn Printmaking Workshop
Wordpress : https://www.valsivilli.com
Facebook : https://facebook.com/valsivilli/
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/valsivilli/
Linked In : https://linkedin.com/val-sivilli-69586213
YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCInPzXrH_lH258MF2MjgAvQ
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