Publisher's Synopsis
Angiola Churchill is professor emerita of New York University and the former Head and Chair of the Department of Art and Arts Professions - 1975-2005. She was the founder and director of the New York University Studio Arts Masters Program in Venice, Italy - 1974-2006, and adjunct professor of Teachers College, Columbia University in New York from 1988-2004. She was also co-director of ICASA, the International Center for Advanced Studies in Art, 1970-1980.
Churchill has also pursued a successful career as an artist exhibiting globally. Since 1953, she has had 60 solo shows in America and elsewhere in such prestigious spaces as the Museo di Palazzo Fortuni, Venice, Italy; Palazzo di Diamonti, Ferrara, Italy; Palazzo Reale, Naples, Italy; Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, Italy; Neuberger Museum of Art, State University of New York, Purchase, New York. In addition, she has participated in more than 54 group shows, biennials and art fairs. She was awarded the 2003 'Venice Golden Lion.' The prize, awarded by the mayor of Venice, Italy is a longterm recognition for an artist who has made a significant contribution to Venetian culture.
Churchill is often associated with monumental paper installations, but her work has evolved in recent years -2000-2018 to include large collage drawings composed of several thousand Post-it notes. Two themes pervade Churchill's work throughout her career: imagery evoking eyes, denoting the eye problems that have plagued her and her ancestors; and the elaborate gardens that are integral to the Milanese landscape in which she was raised. These themes remain constant as her fascination with Post-it notes grows and informs her interpretation of art media.
Churchill uses her recent works to share with the viewer an interest in exploring relationships between small elements that create a larger, cohesive whole. This interest ties back, as always, to her love of gardens: large and elaborate environments created from many small, carefully curated flora and fauna. She explains, "I could go on forever making things in an arrangement, which is again a gardener arrangement." Her shift of medium is also an adjustment to her recent discovery of these sticky notes. As Churchill progresses in age, she considers Post-it notes a "gift" by eliminating the physical stress of constructing large installations while allowing her to continue as the "gardener" she has always been.
Churchill's work in the 2000s is far more colorful than her prior work. Her choice is encouraged by changes in her vision; as her eyesight deteriorates, the color red stands out to her even as other colors begin to fade. She has broken from her previous monochrome installations and desaturated paintings while continuing to acknowledge the theme of the eye.
Though Churchill's themes remain constant, her media acknowledge her circumstances: diminishing eyesight, shifting resources, and an ever-changing, advancing world.
