Wyoming Arts Council

John Giarrizzo is Whitney Museum’s artist-in-residence in July

Featured News | July 16, 2014

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Artist and arts educator John Giarrizzo is a WAC Governor’s Arts Award honoree and a two-time recipient of WAC visual arts fellowships. This comes from the Buffalo Bill Center of the West web page:

Visitors to the Whitney Western Art Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West have the opportunity to interact with popular artist John Giarrizzo, Jr. as he takes his place in the gallery as artist-in-residence July 14 – 18 and 21 – 25.

Through the artist residency, Giarrizzo’s careful, close observation and kinesthetic study of the Whitney’s collection over an extended period serves as the launching point for his expressive response to these works.

John Giarrizzo (b. 1955). Red Desert: Rose, 2001. Oil on canvas. Designated Purchase with Contributions from Miriam and Joe Sample and the William E. Weiss Fund. 4.04.2

In addition, Giarrizzo communicates the artist’s idea of what it means to “draw,” to Center visitors in the Coe Auditorium on Thursday, July 24, in a free noontime presentation at 12:15 p.m. titled An Artist/Teacher at Work: Reflections on a Residency at the Whitney. As he puts it, “The act of drawing constitutes a visual meditation, and can function as an instrument in the way of observing and responding to our visual world in the present tense.”

Giarrizzo uses his own experience as an instructor of art at the post-secondary level (Northwest College, Powell, Wyoming) to touch on the various methods used to teach others to draw. Within these methods, Giarrizzo focuses on teaching from personal experience and from the masterworks of other artists, a tradition that began in the Renaissance and continues to inform the instruction of art today.

For more information on the Whitney Museum’s summer series of programs and artists-in-residence, visit the Whitney programs page of the Center of the West’s website at centerofthewest.org/explore/western-art. Those interested may also contact the Whitney’s Curatorial Assistant Emily Wood at emilyw@centerofthewest.org or 307-578-4051; or Curator Mindy Besaw at mindyb@centerofthewest.org or 307-578-4053.

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