Exhibit: Random Patterns
Pringle Gallery, Philadelphia, PA • February 2005
From aroundphilly.com:
Mixed media is the order of the day this month at Pringle Gallery "Random Patterns" is a two-person show that runs through March 1, with a February opening on First Friday.
Whatever you do, don't call the work of Joanie San Chirico quilts. In my opinion, it is nothing less than "soft painting," in relation to the similar moniker "soft sculpture," denoting fiber based sculpture. Indeed, Ms. San Chirico's fiber art is painterly, as well as being primal and elemental. The bottom line here is spirituality, as each piece is a sacred text of sorts.
From Art Matters magazine:
Also new to Old City is Joanie San Chirico. San Chirico's medium is textiles, creating quilts that draw from the tradition of American folk art, using layers of hand-dyed cloth to create complex abstract collages.
Review of my work at Random Patterns, Pringle Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Ocean County Observer, August 2002
See full bibliography on my resume page
Exhibit: Quilts for Art’s Sake 4
From the SAQA Journal • Winter 2006
By Elizabeth Van Schaick
....
While these works of art were portraits of psyches and socio-political engagement, Joanie San Chirico’s “Separation?” could be considered a portrait of a nation. San Chirico moved from her signature semiabstract arches motif to a risk-taking appliqué collage. She carefully selected images to explore the debate over separation of church and state. She used photographic elements of statues and architecture from New York, Washington, and ancient Rome, and arranged them on a dramatic dark burgundy background. Then she accented her composition with hand stitches and encased it in a thick layer of sealer. Interestingly, the X stitches bear a visual affinity with the Xs in the barbed wire in Kumicich’s war piece.
San Chirico’s juxtaposition of elements was provocative. The Statue of
Liberty, the Capitol dome, a medieval religious figure, and various cathedral arches mixed with Latin inscriptions such as “Pontific” and “Senatus.” The head of a male statue occupied the bottom right foreground. It seemed to be Thomas Jefferson. Conflating him with a Roman bust evoked broad affinities — icons of differing triumphant monuments and crusades.
San Chirico’s design suggested how historical and persistent the Church has been in shaping terrain and policy. Conversely, it showed at the same time how much religious reverence we Americans give to our secular national figures and perceived political guarantees. The close structural attachment of the images and the question mark in the title point to how tenuous, if not mythical, the line between religion and national politics can be.
Asbury Park Press, January 27, 2006
September 2009
The second Artport exhibit at the Atlantic City International Airport presents works that have captured the lively energy of spring and summer. Though the summer is coming to an end, the natural beauty is exaggerated as the heat begins to dissipate.
The space features artist Joanie San Chirico. In her works, San Chirico combines painting, photography, and even textiles to depict natural surfaces and silhouettes; her colors are arresting and the images slightly haunting, somewhat evoking the sense that the images could be longer-lasting than the environment itself.
October 2008
I’m not quite sure when fibre and textile art fell out of my favour, but it had more to do with a series of rust-coloured woollen mishaps and the odd hospital reception to mark the installation of what was jokingly called referred to as a macramé bomb at the post party pub crawl. Even the Toronto Board of Trade hides their textile collection in a storeroom!
And then it happened. I met and fell in love with Joanie San Chirico. Just like that. Well maybe not Joanie, but I’m in love with textile art all over again, thanks to her.
She isn’t your typical textile artist. She starts with a blank canvas, a large photograph, or a screen print. She paints, affixes, stitches and the finished products are snatched up by a most impressive list of corporate collection curators. Many of these images are available as prints as well…
Artist Spotlight
Material Matters Review, Columbus Museum of Art, June 2008
Review Magazine
Layers & Texture, April 15, 2007
Healthy Attitude, April/May 2007
Art as Antidote, Copyright © 2006 Women&Cancer
NY Spaces Magazine, Winter 2006
Exhibit: New Business
NorDys Gallery, Birmingham, AL • October 2006
From James R. Nelson at The Birmingham News
For its opening fall show, NorDys presents six artists who now join the list of artists who regularly exhibit works at this gallery.
Joanie San Chirico works with fabric by cutting, gluing and stitching various textiles into handsome compositions. A group of four "Kimono Fragments" consist of small patches of fabric randomly attached to a background panel. More impressive are her larger works that use dye, screened, stamping and textile paints. With "XVII Babylon" San Chirico uses a series of small arches stitched in rows and in random patterns that capture one of the essential elements of the hanging gardens that were supported by an underground system of arcaded water works.
This is a show that in aggregate offers a wonderfully colorful and bright collection of strong paintings. It is well worth a visit.
