Works of Art: Janet Orselli

All works of art by Janet Orselli are available at if ART Gallery, 1223 Lincoln Street, Columbia, SC.

Contact Wim Roefs at if-art-gallery@sc.twcbc.com or (803) 255-0068/(803) 238-2351.

High Chair, 2004
Mixed media
68 x 17 x 49 in.
$ 1,200


(View 1)

High Chair, 2004
Mixed media
68 x 17 x 49 in.
$ 1,200


(View 2)

Vanity, 2003
Mixed media assemblage
20 x 14 x 21 in.
$ 600


(View 1)

Vanity, 2003
Mixed media assemblage
20 x 14 x 21 in.
$ 600


(View 2)

Vanity, 2003
Mixed media assemblage
20 x 14 x 21 in.
$ 600


(View 3)

Measure Chairs, 2005-2007

Mixed media construction

12 x 5 1/2 x 4 in. and 7
1/2 x 6 x 3 in.

$400 and $325

All works of art by Janet Orselli are available at if ART Gallery, 1223 Lincoln Street, Columbia, SC.

Contact Wim Roefs at if-art-gallery@sc.twcbc.com or (803) 255-0068/(803) 238-2351.

Janet Orselli: ETV Video

Click here to watch ETV video of Janet Orselli showing and talking about her installations.

if ARTwalk: Salon I & II: December 11- 24, 2008

For exhibition installation images, click here.

THE SALON I & II

Dec. 11 – 24, 2008

an exhibition at two Columbia, SC, locations:

Gallery 80808/Vista Studios

808 Lady Street

&

if ART Gallery

1223 Lincoln Street

Reception and ifART Walk: Thursday, Dec. 11, 5 – 10 p.m.

at and between both locations

Opening Hours:

Weekdays, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Saturday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Sunday, 1 – 5 p.m.

& by appointment

Open Christmas Eve until 7 p.m.

For more information, contact Wim Roefs at if ART:

(803) 255-0068/ (803) 238-2351 – if-art-gallery@sc.twcbc.com

For its December 2008 exhibition, if ART Gallery presents The Salon I & II, an exhibition at two Columbia, SC, locations: if ART Gallery and Gallery 80808/Vista Studios. On Thursday, December 11, 2008, 5 – 10 p.m., if ART will hold opening receptions at both locations. The ifART Walk will be on Lady and Lincoln Streets, between both locations, which are around the corner from each other.

The exhibitions will present art by if ART Gallery artists, installed salon-style at both Gallery 80808 and if ART. Artists in the exhibitions include two new additions to if ART Gallery, Columbia ceramic artist Renee Rouillier and the prominent African-American collage and mixed-media artist Sam Middleton, an 81-year-old expatriate who has lived in the Netherlands since the early 1960s.

Other artists in the exhibition include Karel Appel, Aaron Baldwin, Jeri Burdick, Carl Blair, Lynn Chadwick, Steven Chapp, Stephen Chesley, Corneille, Jeff Donovan, Jacques Doucet, Phil Garrett, Herbert Gentry, Tonya Gregg, Jerry Harris, Bill Jackson, Sjaak Korsten, Peter Lenzo, Sam Middleton, Eric Miller, Dorothy Netherland, Marcelo Novo, Matt Overend, Anna Redwine, Paul Reed, Edward Rice, Silvia Rudolf, Kees Salentijn, Laura Spong, Tom Stanley, Christine Tedesco, Brown Thornton, Leo Twiggs, Bram van Velde, Katie Walker, Mike Williams, David Yaghjian, Paul Yanko and Don Zurlo.

Biography: Janet Orselli

High Chair, 2004

Mixed media

68 x 17 x 49 in.

$ 1,200

Janet Orselli (b. 1954)

Janet Orselli was born in Columbia, S.C., and lives in Mill Spring, N.C. In 1976, she graduated from Clemson University with a degree in psychology. She earned an M.F.A. from Clemson in 2001 and was selected for the 2001 and 2004 South Carolina Triennials. Earlier this year, Orselli had a solo show at O.K. Harris Gallery in New York City. Orselli has done large installations at the Gibbes Museum in Charleston, S.C., the Burroughs & Chapin Museum in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., and the Robert Mills Historic Home in Columbia. She has received several residencies and fellowships, including at Anderson Ranch in Colorado and in Kaiserslautern, Germany, and is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship.

Essay: Janet Orselli

Vanity, 2003

Mixed media assemblage

20 x 14 x 21 in.

$ 600

J a n e t O r s e l l i

by Wim Roefs

By the looks of things, Janet Orselli’s objects have a connection with Dada, Surrealism, and Magic Realism. Many a Surrealist or Magic Realist would have been happy to conceive, as Orselli has, a chair with chestnuts or an animal jaw for a seat or a wisteria vine or crutch for a back. Her use of found objects would have pleased Dada artists, including Marcel Duchamp. And one could imagine Orselli incorporating into her work a “dada,” which is French for “hobby-horse.”

But looks can deceive. While these early 20th century movements blazed a trail for Orselli – as they did for Conceptual, Pop, Junk or many other kinds of contemporary art – her intent has little to do with theirs. Her work at times shares some of Dada’s irony and skepticism of society’s values. But it does not share the cynicism, even nihilism, with which especially European Dada artists reacted to the horrors of World War I. Nor does Orselli indulge in the nonsensical, as Dadaists did.

Like Magic Realist painters, Orselli adds mystery to ordinary objects by juxtaposing them. She is not, however, as interested as they are in the fantastic and unreal but rather in increased awareness of the real. Orselli does not have Surrealism’s anti-rational, bizarre bent, either, nor does she share its automatist techniques. Although intuition is no doubt important in her process, deliberation is probably more important.

Orselli’s work speaks about nature and fragile existence, life and death, decay and rebirth, and the presence of the past both in memory and physical form. She wants to de-objectify the object, especially the common object. She wants to trigger awareness that no object is just an object but that each – whether it’s a drawer, a suitcase, a nest, a bedspring, or a key -- has a history as a living organism or one connected to living beings. She does so by placing aged, weathered, often discarded but still recognizable objects in an unusual context – a context typically provided by other such objects.

Orselli’s method adds drama and mystery to objects easily overlooked in their normal context and, in any case, makes them more of note. Her approach works beautifully for installations, her usual art form. It works as well, though, when the more involved, assembled objects that inhabit her installations are presented as individual sculptures. Taken out of the installation setting, these objects inevitably get a closer look, a look that reveals the consistency and effectiveness of Orselli’s concept and its execution, regardless of scale.

Orselli has no desire to fabricate new objects as a sculptor often would. Rather, she says, she wants to acknowledge the significance of an existing object’s past while at the same time create for it a new purpose. “I am drawn to the external evidence of an object’s past life and the unknown experiences that have changed and individualized it. Primarily I want to focus attention on the objects themselves in their direct, honest state along with the poetic connections I make between objects.”

Essay: Janet Orselli

JANET ORSELLI

Construction Crew III Exhibition

by Wim Roefs

2007

Janet Orselli uses common, aged, often found materials for her uncommon installations and objects. While Orselli’s work is not an easy celebration of all things old, her materials do provide an appealing entry point into works of art that are actually statements about contemporary culture. Coming from her region, the U.S. South, the materials come with a built-in sense of place and a connection to regional culture and history. Their familiar quality and sense of times past might encourage viewers to explore the work’s implications, which reach well beyond regional concerns.

“I like saving things,” Orselli says, “especially saving things from certain destruction. I rescue old things that speak loudly to me from trash piles and flea markets. I bring them home and watch how they communicate with other old things in my studio. Sometimes they scream at each other, sometimes they laugh at each other. But ultimately, in some definitive, yet inexplicable way, certain of these particular old things request to be joined together. So I grant their request. Then I laugh and scream at them.”

Gyn Carriage might be for the screaming section. It’s part of a 2006 series of converted and accessorized old baby carriage frames and conveys, graphically, anxieties of the gynecologic sort. Stuck in the carriage is a body-like contraption, constructed from an old back brace, brown fur and two old, curved chair legs. The body is stretched out and trapped helplessly in the carriage frame, its legs spread and sticking out at the front.

Symphonic Carriage, on the other hand, provides a good laugh. With its collapsible frame pushed downward, the carriage becomes a tight, low-riding package, a classic automobile with go-cart pretensions. A claxon front right and the end of a clarinet running the length of vehicle’s left side provide both the musical element and a set of headlights. The clarinet’s front end, without mouthpiece, sticks out at the back, doubling as an exhaust pipe. A fancy seat made of raw cotton, with goggles resting against its back, provides another laugh. So do the wooden top end of an old chair’s back, functioning as the car’s grill, and the way-too-big spare wheel attached to the rear.

The seat of Moses’ Carriage’s is a basket made of chair webbing, and two sets of mule hames, looking like sleigh runners, adorn the carriage’s sides. Concession Carriage’s bottom section is a printer’s type-set box filled with a deteriorated old baseball, wishbone slingshots, dental molds, a root, razors, shoe forms, the head of a mink stole, a mouse trap and other items no one should leave home without.

Orselli wants her work to create an experience of a different reality. About her installations, she says that they “are spaces where objects have been assigned new purpose and meaning for the viewer to contemplate.” This is true for the objects themselves, too.

Resume: Janet Orselli

High Chair, 2004

Mixed media

68 x 17 x 49 in.

$ 1,200

(View 2)

JANET ORSELLI

EDUCATION
2001 MFA, Clemson University, Clemson, SC
1976 BA, Psychology, Clemson University, Clemson, SC

GRANTS AND RESIDENCIES
2007 Support Grant, South Carolina Arts Commission, Columbia, SC
2005 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship, NY, NY
2005 Spring Island Visiting Artist Program, Okatie, SC
2004 Artist Exchange Program, Kaiserslautern, Germany
2002 Pritchard's Island Artist Retreat Program, Beaufort, SC
2001 Artist Scholarship for Anderson Ranch, SC Arts Commission, Columbia, SC

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2009 “Janet Orselli: Feats,” Upstairs Artspace, Tryon, NC
2008 "Loco Motion: A Carriage Migration," Art Walk, Spartanburg, SC
2007 "Janet Orselli,” OK Harris Works of Art, NY, New York
2007 "Musical Soles," Robert Mills Historic House, Columbia, SC
2006 "Dwelling Between," Turchin Center for Visual Arts, Boone, NC
2006 "Attic Habitat," Burroughs & Chapin Art Museum, Myrtle Beach, SC
2005 "Encircling Spaces," Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC
2004 "Engenderings," University of North Carolina - Charlotte, Charlotte, NC
2004 "Visceral Realities," Upstairs Gallery, Tryon, NC
2003 "Sensorium," Sumter Gallery of Art, Sumter, SC

PERFORMANCES
2009 “Feats in Flux” with Rema Keen, Upstairs Artspace, Tryon, NC
2008 “Loco Motion: A Carriage Migration,” Art Walk, Spartanburg, SC
2007 “In Dreaming” with Sheryl Enzinger, Leah Brown, Blaine Siegal, Accessibility: Sustainability, Sumter, SC
2006 “Winged Beings” with Michael Rejkovicz, Turchin Center for Visual Arts, Boone, NC
2002 “Cloister,” City Art, Columbia, SC
2001 “inner view,” SC State Museum, Columbia, SC

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2008 “Craven Arts Gallery Annual Sculpture Show,” New Bern, NC
2008 “String of Pearls,” Upstairs Artspace, Tryon, NC
2008 “Sculpturama,” Tryon Fine Arts Center, Tryon, NC, Third Place
2007 “Construction Crew 111,” Gallery 80808, Columbia, SC
2007 "In Dreaming," Accessibility: Sustainability, Sumter, SC
2006 "Traverse," Accessibility Columbia, Columbia, SC
2006 "Sanctuary," SC Birds: A Fine Arts Exhibition, City Gallery at Waterfront Park, Charleston, SC
2006 "New Artists + New Work + New Year," Blue Spiral Gallery, Asheville, NC
2005 “innerforms III,” Patriot Hall Gallery, Sumter, SC
2005 "A Sense of Place," Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, Augusta, GA
2005 "Orselli and Overend," Gallery 80808, Columbia, SC
2004 "Part to Whole," Triennial 2004, SC State Museum, Columbia, SC
2004 “For the Birds,” & “Klein Format,” Volksbank, Kaiserslautern, Germany
2004 "20th Annual Piccolo Spoleto Art Exhibition," Charleston, SC, First Place
2004 "Sanctuary," SC Birds Exhibition, Sumter Gallery of Art, Sumter, SC
2004 "Ekecheiria," Schopf Gallery on Lake, Chicago, IL, Third Place
2003 "19th Annual Piccolo Spoleto Art Exhibition," Charleston, SC, Best in Show
2003 "Valdosta National 2003,” Valdosta State University, Valdosta, GA
2002 “Loci: A Sense of Place,” Gallery 80808, Columbia, SC
2002 “Extraordinary Things: A Study of Contemporary Art Through Material Culture,” Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN & Bradley University, Peoria, IL
2002 "Baggage," Accessibility Sumter, Sumter, SC
2002 “A Sense of Place,” Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, Augusta, GA
2002 “Cloister,” City Art, Columbia, SC
2001 “Impedimenta,” Lewis + Clark Gallery, Columbia, SC
2001 "inner view," Triennial 2001, SC State Museum, Columbia, SC
2001 "Soles" & "innerforms II,” Accessibility Sumter, Sumter, SC
2000 “Installations on Main,” Sumter, SC
2000 “Extraordinary Things: A Study of Contemporary Art Through Material Culture,” University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT
2000 "Lucy Lippard: Ana 29," The Holter Museum of Art, Helena, MT

TEACHING
2007 Artist-Teacher, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, VT
2006 Art Instructor, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
2004 Art Instructor, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC

LECTURES
2006 Panel Discussion, Accessibility Columbia, Columbia Museum of Art, SC
2006 Artist Lecture, South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, SC
2005 Artist Lecture, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
2005 Artist Lecture, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC
2004 Panel Discussion, Accessibility 2004, Sumter, SC
2004 Artist Lecture, Sumter Artist’s Guild, Sumter, SC
2003 Discussion Leader, Accessibility, Sumter, SC
2003 Artist Lecture, Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, LA
2002 Artist Lecture/Panel Discussion, Bradley University, Peoria, IL
2002 Artist Lecture/Panel Discussion, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN

REVIEWS AND ARTICLES
Carol Motsinger, “Turning Trash into Artwork,” Asheville Citizen-Times, April 2009, D2
Mary Bentz Gilkerson, “A Review of Musical Soles: A Site-Specific Installation by Janet Orselli on view at the Robert Mills House,” Free Times, May 9-15, 2007, 24
Jeffrey Day, “The Art of Travel,” The State, June 23, 2006, E18
Kathryn Martin, “Installation by Janet Orselli at Chapin Art Museum,” Art Daily, June 11, 2006
Jeffrey Day, “’Accessibility’ Stumbles on Its Lack of Access,” The State, April 30, 2006, E4
Nick Smith, “Flight Club,” Charleston City Paper, March 15, 2006
Jeffrey Day, “Battered Beauty,” The State, Sunday, March 20, 2005, E1-2
Jeffrey Day, “What’s with All the Chairs?” The State, Sunday, December 19, 2004, E1-2
Jeffrey Day, “Review: In the Here and Now,” The State, December 17, 2004, E5
Kathryn Rosenfeld, “Politically Tinged: Activist Art Comes Around Again,” Chicago Journal, August 26, 2004, Volume 4, No. 45, 13
Isabelle Girard De Soucanton, “Uberall Schrott,” Die Rheinpfalz, August 8, 2004
Donna Duren, “Organic Visions,” Metrobeat, June 23-June 29, 2004, 20
Connie Bostic, “Color Me Impressed,” Mountain Express, June 23-June 29, 2004, 42
Jeffrey Day, “How It’s Hanging,” The State, March 12, 2004, E24
Mary Bentz Gilkerson, “Vista Lights,” Free Times, November 27-December 3, 2002
Jeffrey Day, “Review: Inside and Outside, a Stirring Show,” The State, Oct. 18, 2002, E26
“Partnership Project with Anderson Ranch Arts Center,” Artifacts, Oct./Nov./Dec. 2002, 10
Teri Tynes, “Reviews (Southeast): Triennial 2001,” Art Papers, Nov/ Dec 2001, 66-67
Jeffrey Day, “In Sumter, Temporary Art Makes a Permanent Impression,” The State, Oct. 4, 2001
Jeffrey Day, “Triennial: Artist Profiles,” The State, Sunday, April 22, 2001, E3
Jeffrey Day, “Sumter Show Brings Exciting Art to Small City,” The State, Oct. 22, 2000, F4
Susan Hicks, “126 for the Show,” The Greenville News, Sunday, Oct. 31, 1999, E1

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC
Patriot Hall, Sumter, SC
Sumter Gallery of Art, Sumter, SC
Spring Island Trust, Okatie, SC
Beaufort Arts Council, Beaufort, SC

WEBSITE REPRESENTATION
Pollock-Krasner Foundation - www.pkf.org/database
SCETV- www.knowitall.org/naturalstate
Southern Arts Federation- www.southernartistry.org