Q&A WITH ARTIST JOE IURATO Joe Iurato’s new exhibition CABIN FEVER will open at Taglialatella Galleries on Thursday June 17.

Multidisciplinary artist Joe Iurato I pretty much fell in love with the sat down with Taglialatella Galleries town and the community. to talk about his creative process. I do that a lot with my projects. I Mr. Iurato discussed two major like to get to know the community projects from 2020, Franklin Alley because I always feel like when in Troy, NY, and Beyond the Walls I paint something, in the street in Deep Ellum, Texas. He also especially, and I leave it there, it spoke about how the coronavirus really doesn’t belong to me anymore. lockdowns impacted his creativity I mean, I created it, but it belongs to and what he is looking forward to in somebody else. It’s that person who the future. walks to work every day or the kids Mr. Iurato’s new exhibition CABIN that spend time out there playing. FEVER will open at Taglialatella They have to look at it. They have to Galleries New York on Thursday have a connection to it. June 17, 2021, with an opening Some of the kids in the are reception to be held on that day at based on the kids I met in the Boys 6:30 pm. To RSVP to the reception, and the Girls Club in Troy, who I took please email [email protected]. pictures of after we did a little art : One of your largest projects project together. We were making of 2020 was the design and paper airplanes. At one point we Qdecoration of Franklin Alley were talking about sports, and one in Troy, NY. Where did you obtain little kid comes up to me and is like, the inspiration for the murals and “Do you know how to make a paper sculptures you did in Franklin airplane?” And I was like, “Yeah,” so Alley, and how did you approach it turned into a project. We were all that subject matter? making airplanes, throwing them A: Franklin Alley was relatively across the room. autobiographical. For about two There’s a part of the Alley where years, I made multiple visits to Troy. there’s this little kid throwing paper I met a lot of locals. I had Q-and-As. airplanes, and they’re going across We did some fun talks and panel the walls. And nobody would even discussions. I went to the Boys and know that, but that was a special the Girls Clubs. I just met people. experience for me. What happened in the end was that Joe Iurato working in his New Jersey studio, 2021. studio, Jersey in his New working Iurato Joe uch of your work is exterior use. I painted the walls the ephemeral, such as same way I would paint any wall in the miniature wooden public. The work will last as long cutoutsM that you photograph as the elements allow. It’s tough and leave around urban areas. up there because of the snow, so But the project in Troy is meant we also purposely did pieces that to contribute to a revitalization were higher off the ground, giving effort. It’s meant to last for a long everything the best possibility to time. How does time and longevity live on. factor into your practice? The wooden cutouts I make for my I look at [Troy] as something that own work I know are not going to will hopefully remain long-term. have a longevity. Sometimes I don’t There are factors that are involved. even leave the woodcuts outside. But It’s in a public setting — anything even if I do leave them, especially can happen. The reality is when in a city setting, they don’t last more you put something out there it’s than a couple of days usually. immediately moving towards its end, even if that’s a hundred years When I do projects the size of Troy Joe Iurato, detail of Beyond the Walls (2020) in Deep Ellum, Texas. from now, because of time and or similarly in Deep Ellum, Texas, weather and circumstance, and where we did kind of the same eventually things will change. thing. I create the works. They’re made to last like a sculptural piece ow did project in Deep town and look for them. And we The pieces themselves are made or anything else that’s made to go in Ellum, Texas, come about, did it again with metal cutouts and to live on. I used materials that are public. and what did you create murals. usually made by sign makers for Hfor it? I used some of the community, too. I That’s another project I did last year went there to visit, and I met with the in the beginning of the year. It was local artists. I met with musicians a project made by Goldman Global and photographers. I got licensing Arts, the same organization that rights for photos of local musicians, runs the Wynwood Walls in Miami. as well as Leon Bridges and people I went to this area of Dallas called who were already there who “made Deep Ellum which is known for its it” from Texas. Homages to some of rich history in music, especially my favorites like Pantera and Stevie the blues and jazz dating back to Ray Vaughan. There were things Robert Johnson and these old blues that I was doing out there that were players. very relevant to the city and also to the up-and-coming local musicians. It was a dream come true. If you look at my work, I’m always painting Deep Ellum and Troy were two little blues guys on railroad tracks projects that were really, really and hobos and wanderers. I had special to me last year. the opportunity to do something he vast majority of your work similar down there, to tell a story in is in black and white and the community in various locations gray, but certain features and create about thirteen pieces Tlike the Earth are often depicted where people could go scout the Joe Iurato, detail of Franklin Alley (2020) in Troy, NY. in color. How do you think about color when you’re doing projects ou mentioned your The stuff that I’m I am doing now is more of like that? collaboration with Logan an introspective observation of what I was Hicks, the exhibition I’ll thinking about and feeling going through When I paint outside, I largely keep YStop the World and Melt With You the pandemic, in a lighthearted way. I everything in black and white. at Taglialatella Galleries over the started painting little wooden log cabins There’s a couple of reasons for that. summer. What was that experience thinking about going out into the woods — One is that I just love black and like, and has the coronavirus just kind of transporting myself to another gray. I always have. If I look back to pandemic influenced your work place in time or what it would feel like pictures when I was in high school besides specific projects like that to just be away from it all. It is a little bit and I was developing, just drawing one? different than things I've done in the past. in my bedroom — everything is in black and white. There’s something I thought through the pandemic here’s an element of nostalgia in special about having a piece that’s that I was going to be at my very best your work, especially since you black and white in this colorful creatively. I really did. Typically for frequently use childhood figures. world. me, when I have a lot on my mind, TDo you approach your work through the or I’m depressed, I tend to take that lens of nostalgia or escapism at all, or Occasionally I will add pops of color out in painting. And I find that I Joe Iurato and Logan Hicks, installation view of “I’ll Stop the World and more generally a search for comfort? to my pieces where I think it makes Melt with You” at Taglialatella Galleries, New York, August 2020. create works that mean the most to sense, like if a kid is holding the I’ve never really talked to people about me during those times. world, and the water is blue. Blue this, and I don't necessarily know if this So we had this fun idea for the show, and is my favorite color to use, so most This was really different. I think makes any sense here, but I struggle with that is why the work is so different from of the time it will be black, gray, the weight of the pandemic, the depression, and I have a lot of anxiety. everything else that I’ve done, because it white, and blue. I’m never using an uncertainty of everything, having was really just fun. I like to look at my kids. And I like to abundance of color. a family and not understanding remember what it's like to have that what’s going to happen next. There What’s one of the funnest things to do The ice cream show [I’ll Stop curiosity, that spark of imagination where was a lot of rage. And I just shut in the summer as a kid? You have an ice the World and Melt With You at the whole world is kind of new. And those down completely, creatively. cream. We ordered ice cream stickers and Taglialatella Galleries in August little mischiefs that you encounter for the all these fun things and got really involved 2020] was kind of interesting for I couldn’t create. I wound up finding first time, and just being sneaky and fun in just trying to do something that was fun. me, because I tried to break out creativity, believe it or not, in my and escaping my own very serious self. And And that show is important to me, because of black and white and give things backyard, gardening. I started to it helps lift me out of a place where it maybe it broke my funk. After months and months some real color and create this garden and build garden boxes and is not so good. It makes me smile. But I of me literally struggling to figure out what happy environment as opposed to grow vegetables, and I spent a lot also realize that there’s lot of other people to do and how to do it and what I wanted to thinking so much about my little of time outside just trying to forget that it takes to another place. It makes you say, or if I wanted to say anything at all. black-and-white world. about art so that hopefully it would remember that life should be simpler. And come back to me. And it took a And then I realized while we were doing it I think that children are the best example If I’m going to put it on a white wall really long time for that to happen. that it’s the act of creating and just painting of that. in a gallery, I usually add some kind and being in that moment, and just having of brown reclaimed wood or maybe It was during the time of mid- I tend to be all over the place with my work. fun. And being back with Logan, who is a little pop of color in the piece, summer when Logan Hicks and I I don’t know why some days I decide to my closest friend and collaborator. It really because you need something else were talking about these things, paint what I decide to paint, but I try not to helped me to kickstart my way back into aside from that pristine white. It’s all saying, “We need, somehow, to get fight it anymore. I feel like every day when the studio and getting back to a little bit of very planned in the moment. It all together and start the motors back you wake up like is a different day. You're normalcy. needs to make sense and balance. up, and I need to start creating.” a different person than you were before, and whatever inspiration hits you in those do a historical take down there. And return moments, that's what you roll with. with paintings. And put them in certain places as homages along the trail. That’s ou mentioned the log cabins that something I've always had in my head, but you're working on right now. What I don't necessarily know if it's ever going to other kinds of projects or themes come to fruition. Yare you exploring at the moment? o you listen to the blues while This summer I'm working on a project in you're painting? Or any other kind Asbury Park, New Jersey, on the boardwalk. of music? We're still having talks about that. I have a D couple of fun commissions I'm working on. I like all music. I’m a big fan of the emotion I’m going to Denmark in August to be part of the blues. of a program. I may be doing another I like stories. I love Norman Rockwell. show in the fall. I've always loved Norman Rockwell. I love This year was really difficult to plan. I did the storytelling aspect of his work and the the Super Bowl last year. And then that whimsical display of his characters, and I went into Deep Ellum. And then we had like stories. When I think about music, it's that long pause where everything kind of such an important part of what I do and fell apart. But then I went into the Troy who I am, because I'm always listening to project, because that had been scheduled these songs that tell stories. When you go for the end of the year. So, that was kind of back to the blues, and you think about the planned out. But what I forgot was, during stories that they're trying to convey through that whole time, nobody was planning this their words, their emotions — to me, it's year, because nobody knew what to expect. super impactful. I'm super honored and excited to do the I love the idea of that wanderer. I take show at Taglialatella Galleries, because it's these pieces and I'll wander train tracks, and I wanted to do a show and I'll wander into places where people with Tag for a while. The title of the show is may never see them. But I go back out in CABIN FEVER [opening on June 17th]. the world and try to retell those stories. It's hard to explain. The blues are a big part s there kind of any mural, installation, of it. I love the blues, I love rock and roll, or other type of you would enjoy doing I love folk music, I love metal. I like it all, but haven't had the opportunity to as long as it tells me some kind of a story. Ipursue yet? I'm a lyrics guy. Me and Logan argue about There’s lots of them. To pick one is almost this all the time, because he could care less impossible. about lyrics. He wants the music, and I gotta have the lyrics, you know? Joe Iurato, Cabin #4 (2021), spray paint on masonite, reclaimed wood assemblage, 14.5 x14.5 in., Unique. To be featured in the upcoming exhibition CABIN We talked about the blues — one thing I've FEVER at Taglialatella Galleries New York, opening June 17, 2021. always wanted to do is I want to spend some ou work a lot with salvaged wood time on the blues trail down south, and I and weathered pieces of material wanted to photograph some of the old blues that you combine with your cut- men and hit up some of the old clubs and Youts. How do you consider the contrast between these more organic materials me. So, years ago I started taking objects and the streamlined aesthetic of the way like old fence wood, barn wood, all sorts of that you paint? reclaimed wood, some cabinet doors, and using them with my pieces, because that First and foremost, I think that my work textural element brings the outside in. It takes shape in the street. also adds a little bit more of a story. I love I prefer the clean aesthetics of stencil. I've the idea of using this reclaimed material always been a big fan of — I that was heading for the trash bin that may just love the clean lines. But that being said, have had 100 years of life to it. And now when you take them outside and you put it you give it another purpose. I don't want to against this busted-up brick wall, or even in call it garbage because I think it's treasure. the sand against the ocean as a backdrop, They’ve had a life, and I’ve given them a there's so much texture. new composition. It’s important. If you take the painting the way I create it — Interview conducted by Kiki Barnes on and put it in a gallery on its own, it almost April 15, 2021. feels too pristine. It doesn't feel right to ***

Joe Iurato, Anotherworld (Pink & Yellow) (2021), spray paint, hand scrolled wooden cutout, reclaimedwood assemblage, 26x14x5 in. each, Unique. (2021), 12x18 in., photographic print on Fujifilm Crystal on Fujifilm print 12x18 in., photographic (2021), detail of The Guardian Iurato, Joe Open Edition, Signed. Lustre, Archive