Artist Glenn Tramantano

Glenn Tramantano– Artist Statement

We enter the world through the front door of a home that is already decorated upon our arrival, with rooms designated, pictures framed, oven cooking, table set. We take in the sights, sounds and smells of our surroundings as facts, as essential truths of the world because they add up to the total sum of our reality. It is this home that orientates us, that directs us in a certain way, simply through its existence. Other possibilities are foreclosed because they are beyond our reach, outside the structures that house us. But what happens when these architectures fail to fit our bodies, and instead create a profound disorientation within us? Do we simply let our bodies be shaped until we fit? Can we ever really feel “at home” in such spaces?

These questions arise from my particular interest in the queer experience, in which this feeling of disorientation is central. Through my work I wish to explore how the queer body might exist within and emerge from these ordered spaces to articulate some other kind of architecture, perhaps one that is more porous and malleable, open to outside influences and future possibilities.

To that end I work within the conventional frameworks given to us, both as an acknowledgement of an historical strategy of the queer movement, and as a way to understand and question the contemporary struggle for assimilation and integration that is taking place within this movement today. Through the language of interior design, of decoration, material, color, patterning, and interior/exterior divisions, I look at ways in which layering, fragmentation, and bodies themselves might interrupt these formal elements to reveal the artificiality of such constructions and destabilize the foundation upon which they are built.

Resume

Education

2009 MFA, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO

2003-06 Continuing Education, The School of Visual Arts, New York, NY

2005 Summer Painting Program, Escola d’Arts Plastique I Disseny, Barcelona, Spain

2002 BA, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

2001 Study Abroad, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK

Exhibitions

2009 Runneth Over, CBC High School, St. Louis, MO
2009 MFA Thesis Exhibition, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
2009 Imaging Desire, Hite Art Institute, University of Louisville, KY
2009 Human Nature – His/Hers, Art Saint Louis New Gallery, St. Louis, MO
2008 Parabola, Steinberg Gallery, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
2008 MFA First Year Exhibition, Des Lee Gallery, St. Louis, MO

Awards

2009 Nominee, The Joan Mitchell MFA Fellowship
2009 The Eleanor Depree and Titus Van Haitsma Scholarship Scholar, Washington University in St. Louis
2002 Junior Class Fine Arts Major Award, University of Pennsylvania

Professional Experience

2007-09 Teaching Assistant, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
2008 Artist Assistant, CityArts, New York, NY



	Glenn Tramantano– Artist Statement We enter the world through the front door of a home that is already decorated upon our arrival, with rooms designated, pictures framed, oven cooking, table set. We take in the sights, sounds and smells of our surroundings as facts, as essential truths of the world because they add up to the total sum of our reality. It is this home that orientates us, that directs us in a certain way, simply through its existence. Other possibilities are foreclosed because they are beyond our reach, outside the structures that house us. But what happens when these architectures fail to fit our bodies, and instead create a profound disorientation within us? Do we simply let our bodies be shaped until we fit? Can we ever really feel “at home” in such spaces? These questions arise from my particular interest in the queer experience, in which this feeling of disorientation is central. Through my work I wish to explore how the queer body might exist within and emerge from these ordered spaces to articulate some other kind of architecture, perhaps one that is more porous and malleable, open to outside influences and future possibilities. To that end I work within the conventional frameworks given to us, both as an acknowledgement of an historical strategy of the queer movement, and as a way to understand and question the contemporary struggle for assimilation and integration that is taking place within this movement today. Through the language of interior design, of decoration, material, color, patterning, and interior/exterior divisions, I look at ways in which layering, fragmentation, and bodies themselves might interrupt these formal elements to reveal the artificiality of such constructions and destabilize the foundation upon which they are built. Resume Education 2009 MFA, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 2003-06 Continuing Education, The School of Visual Arts, New York, NY 2005 Summer Painting Program, Escola d’Arts Plastique I Disseny, Barcelona, Spain 2002 BA, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 2001 Study Abroad, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK Exhibitions 2009 Runneth Over, CBC High School, St. Louis, MO 2009 MFA Thesis Exhibition, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO 2009 Imaging Desire, Hite Art Institute, University of Louisville, KY 2009 Human Nature – His/Hers, Art Saint Louis New Gallery, St. Louis, MO 2008 Parabola, Steinberg Gallery, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 2008 MFA First Year Exhibition, Des Lee Gallery, St. Louis, MO Awards 2009 Nominee, The Joan Mitchell MFA Fellowship 2009 The Eleanor Depree and Titus Van Haitsma Scholarship Scholar, Washington University in St. Louis 2002 Junior Class Fine Arts Major Award, University of Pennsylvania Professional Experience 2007-09 Teaching Assistant, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 2008 Artist Assistant, CityArts, New York, NY





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