Peer Platform for Art invites you to a private reception for multidisciplinary artist Joseph Gerard Sabatino at his pop-up space at 63 Orchard Street, 5th Floor on Saturday, March 3 from 6-9pm. Please join us to celebrate Joseph and to see a selection of multimedia work from the last fifteen years of his career in an intimate setting.
Joseph Gerard Sabatino was born in 1977 in Belleville, NJ and currently lives and works in Patterson, NJ. He graduated with a BFA in Fine Art Photography from Montclair State University in 2000 and studied at Scuola Lorenzo di' Medici in Florence, Italy under internationally known photographer Cosimo Bargellini in 1999. It was here that he made his transition from a photography to multimedia.
As a multidisciplinary artist, Joseph still frames his world the same way as a photographer. He often works with unconventional artistic materials. In his sculptures, he pairs toxic, industrial materials with organic materials typically used in cooking such as caramelized sugar and sausage casings. Nails, welded steel, liquid asphalt, and cement create young saplings and delightful desserts. There is a deceit in his work. His sculptures at first glance evoke feelings of nostalgia, hunger, and desire, but give way to playful feelings of amusement and maybe even disgust when you realize the techniques and materials at hand.
Joseph’s works on paper similarly pair delicacy and precision with rough, unconventional materials. In his Passages series from 2005, Joseph maps out and organizes random thoughts and feelings and sketches them in white pencil and graphite onto asphalt paper, a waterproofing material used for roofing. In his Tree series from 2012, Joseph utilizes any materials necessary such as think black oil stick, thread, waxed cord, and vintage paper to create delicate, organic tree shapes.
Solo exhibitions include the AC Institute, R. Jampol Project(s), Solo(s) Prject House, Newark, NJ, The Paterson Museum and The Dryfoos Gallery at Kean University. Joseph has exhibited in Northern Kentucky University’s national “Underground Railroad” exhibition and participated in “Bittersweet: The Chocolate Show” at Rutgers University. He was also selected to participate in three consecutive New Jersey Fine Art Annuals and was one of five New Jersey artists selected state wide to participate in Kean University’s exhibition, “The Garden Statement,” including a catalog with contributing essays by Rocio Aranda-Alvarado of El Museo del Barrio, NY. Joseph was a receipt of Aljira’s ‘Emerge’ Artist Fellowship & Development Program and was one of ten artists selected nationally for the William and Dorothy Yeck Award for Miami University’s “National Young Sculptors Award.” Internationally, Joseph has exhibited work in Florence, Italy as well as Gras, Austria. While participating in Deltarte’s Artist Residency Program, he simultaneously created a large-scale, site specific installation at the historic Museo della Bonifica di Ca’ Vendramin in Veneto, Italy. The work was covered on national TV with Rai TGR, Correiere della Sera, Art Tribune, arskey, Polesine in Diretta TV interview, Radio Kolbe, Radio Diva and La Voce di Rovigo. Joseph work has been reviewed or featured in The New York Times, The Herald News, Artefuse, ArtVoices Magazine, The Star-Ledger, The Record and The Jersey City Reporter.
This exhibition is accompanied by an artist profile in Hedonist Magazine.
