Who: Joe Pellegrini, a Pop Artist who shows his expressive and modern style through the use of both photography and painting. Not one to pick favorites, Pellegrini is equally passionate about both art forms, “Basically photography pays the bills.But I love both of them equally. It’s commercial photography, like do what they tell me to do and I don’t get to do what I want.” he says.
“I took art in college. I’m a photographer by day. I paint when I want. Luckily I have a place to put them when I’m done, to otherwise they’d just stack up at home and I’d end up giving them away. Gallery wise, it was just the other gallery that we were at.”
Where: The Flat Iron Arts Building. New to the space, Joe wanted a place he and other Pop artists could curate their art , “We were showing at a different gallery. We all left at different times. Michel got a place here, and we decided we should all be around together because we’re all Pop Artists” he says.<
Fun Facts
-Comic books, his childhood and things he finds in his dads garage inspires his work. This offers a unique take on Pop Art by incorporating different layers to his pieces, “I have more transparent layers. I started doing single items, so that you’d wonder why they’re sitting together, but then I realized I can just do them all at once”
-He has a method for deciding which characters and aspects he wants to put into his painting,
-“I kind of collect them on paper first and put them in separate folding based on what I think should be kept together. It’s all kind of like, a common theme or whatever. Then I’ll start painting them and if I need something else, then I’ll find something else. It starts out as a general idea of everything on there but it can always change. That’s one good thing about my work : if I don’t like something it can always change. I have a few things at my studio where things are completely painted over, and you can’t even see what’s underneath it. I mean, it’s mine so I can do whatever I want with it which is a good thing.”
-He doesn’t have a favorite Pop Artist, “They’re all my favorite…Everybody likes Warhol.”
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