Jeanne Ciravolo

Jeanne Ciravolo is a mixed-media artist whose recent exhibitions include the Prisma Prize Exhibition in Rome, Italy; Tokens and Traces, a solo exhibition at Buckham Gallery in Flint, Michigan; and Trio, a three-person exhibition at the Athens Institute of Contemporary Art in Georgia. In 2020, she received the Walter Feldman Fellowship, juried by Ellen Tani, Assistant Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, and her work was selected for the White Columns Curated Artist Registry. She has been awarded residencies at the Hambidge Center, Kimmel Harding Nelson, the Anderson Center, and the Jentel Foundation. Publications featuring her work include Manifest International Drawing Annual 15, Manifest International Painting Annual 10, and Rejoinder, a publication of the Institute for Research on Women at Rutgers University, in partnership with the Feminist Art Project. Jeanne Ciravolo is an Assistant Professor in Residence and Director of the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery at the University of Connecticut.


Artist Statement

My work honors the histories of trauma and resilient narratives of my close female relatives. Through material and psychological acts of construction and repair—stitching, collage, print, and transfer—their stories materialize, reflecting shared human experiences of loss and hope. Layers of painted paper reference both the body—specifically skin—as well as the formal language of painting. The layers accrue, constructing form, or are ripped away. In rebuilding the image, the painted paper functions as a poultice. Through acts of patching and decoupage—practices traditionally associated with women’s domestic labor and craft—I pursue collage as a female act of repair and re-envisioning.

I often use domestic textiles as substrates to explore the resistance inherent in making do, connecting to female traditions of labor and innovation. Each textile comes with a history, and my alterations combine with the existing stains, tears, burns, and bleach marks to locate and magnify the narrative of my female protagonists.


www.ciravolo.com