Nick Quagliozzi

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What Is My Work About? 

My art practice is an extension of my life, living with the genetic terminal illness, Cystic Fibrosis. I make autobiographical work that examines body issues, identity as a ?sick? person, social interaction and confrontation with the apparatus of disease.My work lives within fluctuating health limitations, a studio practice and making work while in the hospital, and reflects those challenges. Because of this, I work in a variety of mediums: performance, video, painting, digital media, photography, and social media- which is sort of my survival guide to being an artist. Often times the resourcefulness of making the work is as important as the finished piece. Each series reveals the body as a redemptive agent through physical experience and social interaction.
Artist Statement

My work looks at different facets of disease. I was born with a genetic terminal disease, Cystic Fibrosis, which primarily affects the lungs and requires many hospitalizations and treatments and am currently on the waiting list for a double lung transplant. The work I make takes an autobiographical starting point and arises out of actual circumstances regarding living with a disease, hospital stays, body issues, mental/ emotional states, and the social issues of illness.

Through performance, video, painting and social media, I push my sick life into public situations. Each episode come from a place of wanting to further explore the depths of human connection through illness, sharing and various mediums. I try to serve as a prompt to overcome health privacy stigma and create an open forum to talk about disease. A tenet of my practice is to try to show some kind of redemption in the ability to stare into the possibility of a future with very heavy unknowns.

In “Medical History (Part Two),” I set out to confront the physical deterioration of my body and meditate on upcoming invasive surgical procedures, challenging the notion of a traditional linear medical history by introducing possibilities for cyclical medical history. Using method acting techniques seen in Hollywood’s most accomplished actors I got into the character of my future post-transplant self using painting and mark making specific to Hollywood makeup and effects artists.

Set in a loosely interpreted Operating Theater, “Medical History (Part Two),” serves to share my questioning of time, the veracity of my body, anxiety, and the voyeuristic nature of the hospital environment. “Medical History (Part One)” is currently planned for a future, unknown date/time and will serve as a performance diptych to “(Part Two).”

“Vest Sessions” was performed as part of PerformChinatown. I went through a series of my normal daily breathing treatments with only the location changing, from my home to Chung King Road in Chinatown. Each 25 minute session I did two nebulized medications and wore the vibrating, pulsating Vest, which helps clear the lungs. The performances remained on my regular treatment schedule starting at 9AM, repeating every 4 hours.

I am in the hospital on average of 12 weeks a year over various stays, because of this my hospital room acts as my surrogate studio. Both acting as places of refuge, worry, contemplation, and hopefully truimph. “Objects In My Hospital Room” is a collection of drawings made while he was inpatient for two weeks. Though the work depicts the different objects he sees while in bed, it is not the objects keeping him company- his company is found in the act of drawing.

The follow-up to “Objects In My Hospital Room” was “The Hospital Show” which extended the act of painting as a confrontation with based human emotions and functions. In “The Hospital Show” I invited viewers into my hospital room for a gallery show; displaying drawings I had made while inpatient during that stay. I published a Press Release, had an opening reception and held gallery hours the next day.

For “Urban Light IV Pole,” I took my home IVs to LACMA and repurposed Chris Burden’s “Urban Light” sculpture into a functional IV pole from which I hung an hour-long dose of an antibiotic. Chris Burden states his goal for Urban Light was to usurp the function of the street lamps, making them devoid of any function by having them be art. I decided to intervene on Burden’s task and repurpose function back into the sculpture by making the light poles an in-use medical IV pole.

 

CV

Bio

1982        Born in Worcester, MA
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

 

Education

2012        MFA, California State University, Los Angeles
2004        BA Sociology, Providence College, Rhode Island

 

Solo Exhibitions and Performances

 2014
“SICK SELF,” UCLA Geffen School of Medicine Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Medical History (Part Two),” RAID Projects, Los Angeles, CA

2013
“The Hospital Show,” Keck Hospital of USC, Patient Room 800, Los Angeles, CA

2012
“Physical Documentation of Digital Symptoms,” CSULA Fine Arts Gallery
“Urban Light IV Pole,” Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA

 

Group Exhibitions

 2014
“MAS Attack 7,” Santa Monica Studios, CA
“Catching the Big Fish,” Pterodactyl Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Collaboration, “Gallery Tally,” ForYourArt, Los Angeles, CA. Organizer: Micol Hebron
“One for the Road,” Hudson Linc Gallery, Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, CA

2013
“Narrative Space,” Venice Arts, Venice, CA
“Hostile/Hospitality,” The Highland House, Upland, CA. Curator: Christy Berkowitz
“Perform Chinatown,” Los Angeles, CA. Curators: Jamie McMurry and Alejandra Herrera
“Credit Card Curation,” anthonyantonellis.com/creditcardcuration. Online exhibition
“Backyard Video Festival,” Burbank, CA

2012
“Facial Expressionism,” Cerritos College Gallery, Cerritos, CA. Curator: James MacDevitt
“Metabolize,” Market Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2011
“Here Tomorrow, Gone Today,” Luckman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. Curator: John Souza
“NaturoFantastic,” COMA Gallery at Cal State, Los Angeles, CA

2010
“Small Wonders,” Nano Gallery, Santa Monica, CA. Curator: Jonny Coleman

2009
“Fool’s Gold,” The Hive Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Open Call LA,” Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery Barnsdall Park, Hollywood, CA

2008
“Joint Custody,” Found Gallery, Los Angeles, CA and Berlin. Curator: Shana Nys Dambrot
“Fools and Freaks,” Echo Curio Gallery, Echo Park, CA

2007
“Small Wonders,” Pharmaka Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. Curator: Holly Myers
“Booming Art Show,” Boomer Esiason Foundation, Waldorf Astoria, NY
“Politics and Art: No Pretty Pictures,” Post Road Gallery, Marlboro, MA

2006
“Fire and Ice, Aurora Gallery,” Worcester, MA
“Hot Time, Summer in the City,” Aurora Gallery, Worcester, MA
“Providence Street Painting Festival,” Providence, RI
“Smile: An American Icon,” Worcester Historical Museum, MA

 

Curation

2013
“The Backyard Video Festival,” Burbank, CA

2011
“Tel-Art-Phone”, Beacon Arts Building, Inglewood, CA. Co-curated with Mat Gleason
“Shotgun,” COMA Gallery at Cal State, Los Angeles
“GANGBANGCLUSTRFUCK,” COMA Gallery at Cal State, Los Angeles

 

Publications

2014
KCRW, “Which Way LA,” April 2, 2014. Radio Interview by Lisa Napoli:
http://blogs.kcrw.com/whichwayla/2014/04/making-art-through-sickness-and-health
Seed, John. Huffington Post, “Spectacular Auction Results Aren’t the Real Art World News,” May 14, 2014,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-seed/spectacular-auction-resul_b_5326045.html
Notes On Looking, “The Orange Sweater,” http://notesonlooking.com/2014/04/the-orange-sweater-a-painting-by-elmer-bischoff-by-dominic-quagliozzi/
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, SFMoMA Tumblr, http://sfmoma.tumblr.com/post/85832474998/the-power-of-what-art-can-do-what-a-timeless

2013
USC News, May 13, 2013;
http://news.usc.edu/#!/article/50667/artist-turns-his-hospital-room-into-a-gallery/
Reynolds, Mike. Art Dinners, May 2013,
https://artdinners.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/dominic-quagliozzi/

2012
Exhibition Catalogue, “Facial Expressionism: Immanence Envisage,” Cerritos College, CA
University Spotlight, CSULA online magazine; http://www.calstatela.edu/univ/ppa/spotlight/archive/2012/pkptravel-dominic.php

2011
Exhibition Catalogue, “Here Tomorrow, Gone Today,” Luckman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2008
WhiteHot Magazine, July 2008,
http://www.whitehotmagazine.com/index.php?action=articles&wh_article_id=1497

 

Awards and Recognitions

2012
First Place, Arts and Design category, Cal State University State Wide Symposium
Top Prize, Cal State, Los Angeles University Research Symposium
Phi Kappa Phi Research Award

2007
“Booming Art Competition”, Boomer Esiason Foundation, Waldorf Astoria, NY

 

Lectures and Artist Talks

2014
“Context as Narrative in Contemporary Art,” (Panel Disccusion with Matias Viegener, Nancy Popp, Stephen van Dyck and Skip Snow), OffRamp Gallery, Pasadena, CA
Guest Lecturer, Chapman University, Orange, CA

2013
Guest Lecturer, Chapman University, Orange, CA
Artist Talk, Cal State Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

2012
Guest Lecturer, Chapman University, Orange, CA
Cal State University Research Symposium, State Wide at CSU, Long Beach
Cal State, Los Angeles University Research Symposium,

 

Permanent Collections
Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA, collaborative mural with Felipe Ehrenberg