earlier this month, on a sunny afternoon in manhattan, we took the j train to bushwhick for a studio visit of don porcella - the man who brought lowbrow, crafty pipe cleaners straight into chelsea art galleries.
coming from an artistic family - his mom being a successful quilts artist - don has always been into art. he worked as an assistant of david salle, experimented with encaustic paintings and founded a rock band, the face urchins.
during the last years he has developed his own, very original, medium and language. his sculptures reflect his view on the world we live in (such as the monkey with spray can in front of a tv ;-)) and feature both real, fictional and allegoric stories. the big colorful bird of prey hanging in the studio with the artist portrayed as a rat underneath is a nice example of this, as are the main actors of the art world - think "7 days in the art world" - transformed into pipe cleaner dolls.
humor and playfulness, which you instantly feel when spotting one of his flashy installations, in combination with a multi-layered concepts, makes his art at the same time accessible and profound.
don stressed that he enjoys how looking at his work gets a conversation started, so take your chance and do both: see his latest sculptures & have a chat with the artist in the upcoming group show new york fiber in the 21st century @ lehman college, bronx or during don's solo @ claire oliver gallery in november. we guarantee you'll enjoy it as much as we did!