LIVES IN:   Hoboken, NJ WORKS IN:   Hoboken, NJ

SCHOOLS:   Ohio State University, MFA Indiana University, 1998, BFA TAGS:   sculpture, installation, conceptual

Nick De Pirro is an artist based in the New York City metropolitan area. Born in East Chicago Indiana, he has a BFA in fine arts from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. He received his MFA in art from The Ohio State University. His work normally includes sculpture, video, microprocessor control, or other technologies implemented through a mixed media installation approach. The work often also creates clashes between different artistic practices or even different bodies of work set against each other in a space. De Pirro has been a faculty member of the Fine Arts Department at the Columbus College of Art and Design, and is currently working in Hoboken, NJ. He has shown in Illinois, Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and recently completed a large public sculpture for the Columbus Metropolitan Library branch in New Albany, OH. In the fall of 2005, De Pirro and his collaborator, Ian Williams, installed the exhibition Circumambulator, a large-scale installation and performance work at the Aronoff Center for the Arts’ Weston Art Gallery in Cincinnati. Upcoming exhibitions include a solo installation at the SAC Gallery on the SUNY Stony Brook campus.

 

Other, recent exhibitions include: The CCAD Faculty Biennial Exhibition, Columbus, OH 2001, Demo, Nexus Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2002 Small Works, ROY G BIV, Columbus, OH 2003, Noun/Verb, Hillwood Art Museum, Long Island University, NY 2003, Nazi Crate: replica prop with white fedora (from Raiders of the Lost Ark) at Acme Art Company in Columbus, OH, and Solids, Part 2 at The Sculpture Center. De Pirro's work has been reviewed in the New York Times, Columbus Alive, Angle Journal of arts+culture, and other publications in the metropolitan New York, Chicago, Cleveland, and Cincinnati areas.

My artistic practice is pronouncing limitations and then breaching them. I seek to integrate myself in systems and organizing principles. I am interested in the pursuit of unlimited options. The nature of the work, and the material in which it is executed, is dependent only on the circumstances of conceptual need. The work is never bound to any single methodology or technique, only to the representation of underlying ideas. My work exists in real space, and is focused on emphasizing gesture, form, and material. My approach is one of self-awareness and cultural responsiveness.

 

I produce sculpture as a means to achieve a physical manifestation of my conceptual intentions in hopes that material objects will convey the significance of the mental constructs responsible for their forms. I often begin by fabricating an object or group of objects using an appropriate material and process, with the intention of later installing these pieces with other objects or sculptures that modify their meanings in some way. I am interested in situational ironies that can occur in these installations, and see them as more important than the individual objects that are used to stage them. These sculptures are used to produce a theatrical situation which calls attention to the conditions that make sculpture operate. Sculpture as a system is the subject.

 

I perform as a way to further engage myself with my sculptural objects. I often create sculpture that is intended to become part of a performance act. These pieces must keep their integrity as autonomous art objects. They are not props; they are art objects on the gallery stage. The full significance of these objects is only realized in their final installation.

 

I am interested in borders and conflicts between subjects, and the physical objects, images, and performances that I produce are the products of this interest. At its core, my work is about borders and systems and the way that I engage them.

Education

M.F.A, The Ohio State University, Columbus OH

B.F.A. in Sculpture, Minor in Art History, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 1998

 

Selected Exhibitions

Circumambulator, Aronoff Center for the Arts: Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati, OH 2005

Solids Part 2, Sculpture Center, Cleveland, OH, February 2004

Nazi Crate for a Good Sculpture, Acme Art Company Gallery, Columbus, OH 2003

Art and Industry, Union Street Gallery, Chicago Heights, IL 2003

Acme Art group exhibition, Acme Art Company Gallery, Columbus, OH 2003

Noun/Verb Hillwood Art Museum, Long Island University, Brookville NY 2003

OAL Juried Exhibition Columbus, OH 2003

Small Works, ROY G BIV, Columbus, OH 2003

Demo, Nexus Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 2002

CCAD Faculty Biennial Exhibition, Columbus, OH 2001

MFA Thesis, Kinnear Rd., Columbus, OH 2001

One Minute Performances hosted by Stelarc, Columbus OH, 2001

Some Space Between, group show at Skylab, curated by Franz John, Columbus OH 2001

Flash Crash, with Ian Williams, Sherman Studio Arts Center 2001

Graduate Student Exhibition, Hopkins Hall Gallery, The Ohio State University 1999

Multi-disciplinary group show BLD gallery space, Columbus, OH 1999

First Year Graduate Student Group Show, SUNYSB 1999

Storeroom 3205 one week installation and electronic performance SUNYSB 1999

Four Hundred, outdoor video installation, SUNYSB 1999

SUB/URBAN exhibition, group show, Huntington, NY 1998

BFA Thesis Exhibition, SoFA Gallery 1998

Sculpture Department Group Exhibition, SoFA Gallery 1998

Black Pod, sculptural installation in the SoFA Gallery Bomb Shelter Space 1998

Digital Media Arts Group Exhibition, SoFA Gallery 1998

Digital Media Arts Group Exhibition, SoFA Gallery 1997

Undergraduate Juried Show, SoFA Gallery 1996

John G. Blank Center for the Arts Annual Juried Show 1996

John G. Blank Center for the Arts Annual Juried Show 1995

Throb, student art web site 1998-1999

 

Lectures and Talks

Artist talk: for Circumambulator, Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati, OH 2005

Artist talk: Sculpture Center, for Solids Part 2 exhibition 2004

Artist talk: Long Island University, for Noun/Verb exhibition 2003

Artist talk: SUNY Stonybrook, for Singing the Body Electric conference, master class with Laurie Anderson 2000

 

Web Projects

www.somespacebetween.org

www.nickdepirro.com

www.storeroom.org Storeroom 3205, 2000-2001

www.fa.indiana.edu/~throb Throb, collaborator, 1998-1999

 

Employment

07/01/06- Present: Owner and Sole Member/Manager of Project Studios LLC, Hoboken, NJ

02/01/04- Present: Apple Computer Inc. Mac Genius, Short Hills, NJ

05/01/05- Present: Freelance fabricator Modelsmith Intl., Hoboken, NJ

1/01/03- 10/15/04: Freelance fabricator and sculptor, Meta-L Studio, Columbus, Ohio

10/01/02- 9/31/03: Freelance Studio Assistant, Ann Hamilton, Michael Mercil, Columbus, Ohio

9/01/02- 9/31/03: Freelance Studio Assistant, Alan Hamwi, Columbus, Ohio

9/01/02- 1/15/03: Giesterhole Foundry, Columbus, Ohio

8/1/01- 8/1/02: Faculty, Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, Ohio

4/1/99- 6/1/01: Graduate teaching assistant, The Ohio State University

8/31/98- 6/1/99: Graduate teaching assistant, The State University of New York, Stonybrook

 

Awards and Commissions

Grant for fabrication of Circumambulator, Cincinnati Arts Association, Cincinnati , OH 2005

Sculpture commission, Columbus Metropolitan Library, New Albany Branch, New Albany, OH 2003

Edith Fergus Gilmore Materials Grant, 2001

Two year teaching assistantship, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 1999

Full tuition scholarship, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 1999

Three year teaching assistantship, SUNY Stonybrook, Stonybrook, NY 1998

Full tuition scholarship, SUNY Stonybrook, Stonybrook, NY 1998

Graduated with High Distinction, Indiana University 1998

Senior Achievement Award, University Honors Division Scholarship 1998

Evelyn Glazer Scholarship, Indiana University School of Fine Arts 1998

Pygmalion’s award, best BA student in the School of Fine Arts, Indiana University 1996

Italo-American National Union Scholarship 1996 and 1997

Villa Cesare Scholarship - 1995-1998

Purchase award, Golden Key National Honors Society Art International ‘97 Art Contest 1997

Juror’s Award, Undergraduate Juried Show, SOFA Gallery, Indiana University 1996

Indiana University Founder's List for all semesters after spring 1996

Campus Voice Award for creative web page design 1996

Ruth Halls Award for excellence in fundamental studio 1995

Founder's Award, Northern Indiana Arts Association 1995

Golden Key National Honor Society 1997-1998

Mortar Board Honor Society 1997-1998

Phi Beta Kappa 1998

  

Selected Reviews

Angle Journal of Arts + Culture, March/April 2004. Review: Douglass Max Utter, for Solids, Part 2.

Cleveland Scene, February 11-17, 2004. Review: Nadia Michael, for Solids, Part 2.

Columbus Alive, December 4, 2003. Review: Melissa Starker, for Nazi Crate for a Good Sculpture.

The New York Times, Sunday, October 5, 2003. Review: Helen A. Harrison, for Noun/Verb.