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I am a mixed media artist working in Appalachia. I create my work in my West Virginia studio using repurposed lithographed metals, found objects, and vintage photographs. Please check out my work and feel free to contact me with any questions.
"Fall Prevention Robot"
60"x24", mixed media
$3000.
My earliest recollection of actually “making art” was at about age five, right after my parents and I returned from a day at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. My parents were not into art, so we did not visit the painting galleries. However, we did view a room filled with knight’s armor, and that had a huge impact on me. When we got home
My earliest recollection of actually “making art” was at about age five, right after my parents and I returned from a day at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. My parents were not into art, so we did not visit the painting galleries. However, we did view a room filled with knight’s armor, and that had a huge impact on me. When we got home, I began to draw knights in armor, based on the examples I had seen that day in the Carnegie. I didn’t have a sketchbook then, or access to drawing paper. My mom provided me with flattened paper grocery sacks and pieces of white card stock that was part of the packaging of new shirts. Even back then, without my realizing it, I was making art using repurposed materials.
Even at that early stage in my life I was telling people I was going to be an artist when I grew up. However, my idea of what an artist was came from Saturday Evening Post covers, Walt Disney, and a Saturday morning TV show called Learn to Draw with Jon Gnagy. As I got older, my parents supported my art making by buying me art materials on occasion, but never took my artistic endeavors seriously. They looked at the pursuit of art as a hobby, not really a way to earn a living. I can’t totally blame them. In the various Ohio River towns we lived in, we never knew anyone who earned their living as an “artist”. Most of the breadwinners we knew were steelworkers, miners, construction workers.
I am passionate about working with found materials, aka my “trash”. I am especially attracted to those items that show use, wear and even some rust. I love stuff with character. I often find myself wondering about the person who made these materials, who used them, who held them. I like to think that a part or energy of that person is still contained in these things, and now it’s transferred into the artwork. I’m giving that discarded piece of metal, or that old photograph, a new life, a different life. I am thrilled that I can use this stuff and that it becomes part of my creative process. These various materials are every bit as important to my art making as is a tray of oils are for a painter. For me, walking through a flea market is like walking through a well-stocked art materials store. The flea market is my palette.
I primarily work using repurposed lithographed metal (from old signage, product containers, old toys, etc.), found objects, and vintage photoaraphs.
Each piece I make begins with an idea, a spark, a doodle. Once the seed is planted, I take some time to think about what it is I want to say visually. I do sketch a lot, and I keep several ske
I primarily work using repurposed lithographed metal (from old signage, product containers, old toys, etc.), found objects, and vintage photoaraphs.
Each piece I make begins with an idea, a spark, a doodle. Once the seed is planted, I take some time to think about what it is I want to say visually. I do sketch a lot, and I keep several sketchbooks or journals close at hand, including in my truck. I sketch out many dof my ideas, but my finished work may not look exactly like those initial thumbnails, and that is OK. I like to leave plenty of room for serendipity.
Next, I decide on a support. I need a sturdy surface or container upon which I will be attaching my metal or objects. Figure/ground relationships and composition are important to me, so as I build a piece I am keeping design elements in my head. Then, I just build until I feel the work is finished. Sometimes, the question of knowing when to stop can be difficult to answer.
Selected Exhibitions:
2024 "Bicycle, Bicycle", Stifel Fine Arts Center, Wheeling, WV
2024 The 78th Ohio Annual Exhibition, Zanesville Art Museum
2024 The Art of Robert Villamagna, solo exhibition, Chautauqua Institution, NY
2024 Crosscurrents, Stifel Fine Arts Center, Wheeling, WV
2023-24 West Virginia Juried Exhibition, The Culture Center, Ch
Selected Exhibitions:
2024 "Bicycle, Bicycle", Stifel Fine Arts Center, Wheeling, WV
2024 The 78th Ohio Annual Exhibition, Zanesville Art Museum
2024 The Art of Robert Villamagna, solo exhibition, Chautauqua Institution, NY
2024 Crosscurrents, Stifel Fine Arts Center, Wheeling, WV
2023-24 West Virginia Juried Exhibition, The Culture Center, Charleston, WV
2023 September 23-October 21, Gallery 2265, Wheeling, WV (solo exhibition)
2023 May 4-June 11, Stories in Tin, Bloomfeld-Richwood Gallery, Richwood, WV (solo exhibition)
2022 Nutting Gallery, West Liberty University (solo exhibition)
2021-2022. Associated Artiists of Pittsburgh Annual Exhibition, Pittsburgh, PA
2021-2022 West Virginia Juried Exhibition, The Culture Center, Charleston, WV
2021 Robert Villamagna, MIB Gallery at the Colonial Theater, Buckhannon, WV (solo exhibition)
2018 Transformation 10: Contemporary Works in Found Materials,
the Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder’s Prize Exhibition, Society
for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh
2018 Three Rivers Arts Festival Juried Visual Arts Exhibition, Pittsburgh
2018 Tin is the New Black, an exhibition of twelve artists working in
repurposed metal, Stifel Fine Arts Center, Wheeling, WV
2017 The History of Rust in America (solo exhibition)
Dickerson Gallery, Tamarack, Beckley, West Virigina,
2016 My Latest Attempt to Be Somebody, (solo exhibition) Loft
Gallery, Wheeling Artisan Center, Wheeling, WV
2016 The Gift of Art: 100 Years of Art from the Pittsburgh Public
Schools' Collection, Senator John Heinz History Center,
Pittsburgh,
2015 Life in the Belly of a Dinosaur (solo exhibition) Northern
Kentucky University
Selected Awards:
2023 Award of Excellence. WV Juried Exhibition
2019 Governor’s Award, WV Juried Exhibition
2017 Wheeling Hall of Fame Inductee in Fine Arts
2016 West Virginia Artist of the Year
2015 Governor’s Award, WV Juried Exhibition
Selected Collections:
The State of West Virginia
Pittsburgh Public Schools
Bettye Saar
Copyright © 2024 Robert Villamagna - All Rights Reserved.
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