The gallery is pleased to present a selection of assemblages and paintings by Distillery artists Phyllis Famiglietti and Debra Samdperil.
On view: April 6 – May 7, 2023
Opening reception: Saturday April 8, 2 - 5pm
Statements
Phyllis Famiglietti: I find magic in found objects…they contain a certain type of energy from a previous life. Old books and magazines, instruction manuals, and comics, detritus picked-up off the streets and discovered in flea markets. Wires, springs, hinges, switches, homeless pieces that once belonged to something or someone, somewhere at sometime, have filled many of my drawers and cabinets for years.
Recently, I went through a powerful time where fears and emotions, once buried in a framework of childhood dreams, revealed themselves. Once these feelings surfaced, I found myself driven to create, transposing cherished objects…disjointed dolls, porcelain figurines, skates and circuit boards, little plastic animals and old broken toys…into characters, stories and scenes.
While creating these pieces, I allow the objects to guide me in an exploration of form, color, balance and story. I have no preconceived notions of character or narrative and am open to all possibilities. Usually I’m surprised at where the process takes me, but can immediately recognize an intimate connection to the past, or a lingering fear of the future. And unaware of any conscious motivation, the work transitions from the personal to the political (and sometimes back again), as each object reveals a silent history held mute at its core.
And I leave it up to you…the viewer… to draw your own conclusions. To allow the objects and their interactions to lead you through corridors of personal meaning and history. To undertake your own experience with magic.
Debra Samdperil: I present a selection of paintings completed from 2020 – 2023. The work explores my voice through paint - as opposed to a more verbal logic. “Places” I explore include childhood, identity, escape, trauma, joy and intimacy - bringing the complex layers of memory and experience to a simpler surface. Painting through our world’s Covid shift no doubt informed some of this work as well. All are implicit, not conveying a specific narrative but owning the abstracted characters that sometimes emerge. When I’m fully in the process, I experience a dialog as the layering brings forward a multiplicity of story from the inside – out. Titles are determined well after completion of each painting.
To help me respond to my own impatience and self-doubt I typically work on multiple paintings simultaneously. Decisions are made and remade - building layers, subtracting, scraping, pouring, replacing, and then sometimes adding anew. At my best I feel relief in the play, sometimes only following the battle. It’s a process of coming to terms with my life, our challenging world and our evolving universe.
As reflected in the title of this show, Phyllis and I share a studio (and a life) – essentially living and working side by side. Although our work is quite different, we are always communicating on numerous levels.
Bios
Famiglietti: I am an award winning video editor and collage/assemblage artist formerly from New York, now living and working in Boston. Collaborating with clients like photographer/filmmaker Bruce Weber helped me develop a layering style that became a signature of both my video and collage work. I have exhibited at numerous galleries in both New York and New England. I was featured in a special “World Collage Day” edition of Kolaj Magazine in 2019.
Samdperil earned a BFA from Tufts Univ., School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA), Boston while she continued her established photography practice in the 1980’s. She then began to paint seriously while also working professionally in art administration and education in Boston (SMFA) and NYC (Scholastic Art & Writing Awards) through 2018. After briefly Consulting for Raw Arts in Lynn, MA, Debra now dedicates herself full-time to her painting practice.
Samdperil has exhibited work from New England to Los Angeles, most recently awarded a solo show entitled Layered Conversations at the Center for Contemporary Art, Bedminster, NJ. She has participated in numerous residencies from Montana to NH and regularly participates with colleagues and mentors in virtual critiques internationally through the Yellow Chair Salon based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work is in several private collections.