About

  After receiving his MFA from the Otis College of Art in 1993, Carmine Iannaccone exhibited painting and sculpture that was engaged with the standards we use to quantify reality and locate ourselves in the world. Principles of measure were tested and played out in his studio through the intersecting fields of handcraft, mechanics, and natural history. Visitors to his exhibitions might see geological processes being re-routed through studio operations, artisanal object-making mated with the mechanisms of industry, or anachronistic skills re-purposed through contemporary design.

What lay behind this output were overarching questions about the issues of usability and use-value. Are those just frank ways of being, or do they also have the power to represent other things: value systems, class differences, ethics? Is having a use the same thing as having a purpose? What is the relationship between things that are deemed useful and things that are intentionally designed to be used? Is use compatible with art?

Currently, he reconsiders these questions through paintings in oil. He considers himself a field artist: someone who embeds himself in a community where he can study a specific history, absorb a specific culture, and observe specific interactions. He interprets those observations and then folds them into the imagery of his paintings. He thinks about the way people use such images to build selfhood, to visualize reality, and to project identity.

 

To learn more, see his website at carmineiannaccone.com