FEATURED ARTIST OF THE MONTH 2014

Gina Telcocci

Gina Telcocci’s ephemeral mixed-media sculptures are objects of curiosity. Both scientific feeling and playful, they give us a sense of something revealed – as if we are viewing the interior or scaffolding of nature. Her often translucent forms enclose space and reveal it with orifices - simultaneously becoming a seed pod’s protective outer layer and something more internal or visceral. 
impulse: from barbary to decadence in 150 years found wood & mixed media, 2010

Telcocci's work has been exhibited widely across the US, Mexico, and in South Korea. Most recently, her work was exhibited at Robert Agrella Gallery at Santa Rosa Junior College, where she also teaches.

She has created temporary installations for both public and private sites and has been the recipient of public commissions including at the University of New Mexico/Los Alamos, Walnut Creek Library, and the Potrero Hill Library in San Francisco. 

Telcocci been the recipient of many grants and awards including from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, and the City Of Oakland. Her work is represented by Ernesto Mayans Gallery in Santa Fe.

Artist Statement

My grounding in the visual & physical world is where I begin as a sculptor. I collect visual ideas & materials, organize them, manipulate substances – wood, reed, wire, plaster, wax, found objects, etc. Interpreting and understanding the resulting artifacts is really the last stage of the cycle, and feeds into the next cycle, and so on.

My sculptural forms are mostly simple – organic or geometric, and almost always hollow, with openings. The notion of interior volumes that are at least obliquely accessible to the viewer is important. They suggest to me something about our interior & exterior lives as creatures on the planet.

Visible structure is a recurring tactic, as well as a significant theme, in my work. I am consistently attracted to the elegance of grids, lattices, and woven patterns. I see them as a reference to the human impulse to organize and create our world – coaxing order out of chaos. Using these linear structures, and seeing how they have been used throughout human history, gives me a sense of kinship & continuity.

Recently, I have been engaged with developing the surfaces of my sculptures. Mimicking the worn surfaces of old things, where the history or the life of the thing is glimpsed, I build up layers over a structure. Each layer is a stage of the metamorphosis of the sculpture, from raw natural material to increasingly refined human articulation.

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