ABOUT GIUSTINA SURBONE

Giustina Surbone lives and works in Brooklyn New York. In addition to her practice as a painter, she is a photographer and video, performance and culinary artist.

Artist Statement

My goal as an artist has always been to deliver a direct impact by virtue of the size of my work and the expressive force of my subject matter. As a painter, I find a painting always takes me where it wants me to go. Often I discover many things along the way and may not end up with what I envisioned from the start.

My paintings can best be described as figuratively idiosyncratic portraits and narratives. In my work I explore women’s issues with psychological subtexts of excess, complex sexuality, body politics and social taboos. My current work is representative of my worldview and inspired by current events and global feminist ideology.

Interested in the transformative moment when a photographic image becomes a painting, I use photographs as the starting point of all my compositions. In addition to my own photographs, I use personal photos of others, and images found on the Internet, in magazines, movies and the trash as my models. I have also experimented with video, live performance, installation, digital printmaking and the culinary arts to communicate the intent of my work.

CV
1990-92 Parsons School of Design, New York, New York
1977-81 State University College at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York

Solo Exhibitions
2012 Flux Factory, "Bacchanalian Banquet," for Banquet for America Experiment, Long Island City, NY

2002 McCaig-Wells Gallery, “The Figure,” Brooklyn, New York

Performances
2012 Flux Factory, “Bacchanalian Banquet“ for Banquet for America Experiment, Long Island City, NY
2011 Private Studio, “A Bacchanalian Dining Experiment,” Brooklyn NY

Select Two Person and Group Exhibitions

2022 Hilt and Stella Kelly Hall, "All Things Great and Small," Roxbury Arts Group, Roxbury, NY

2022 Drawing Rooms, "Rewriting Herstory: Women in the Visual Arts," Artsy Online
2021 SCALE, within the artist's practice, The Great Gallery Hall @First Presbyterian Church, New York City 2020 El Barrio's Artspace PS 109, "Women Celebrate Women," New York, NY

2020 Online Artsy Exhibition, "There's No Place..." curated by Krista Scenna, Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn NY 2020 Arts Gowanus, "Arts Gowanus on Atlantic Ave (A Socially Distanced Safe Event)" Brooklyn NY

2012 Sideshow Gallery, “Mic:Check,” Brooklyn, NY
2011 Galeria, “Queer Bodies,” Queens, NY
2010 Pool Art Fair, New York, NY
2009 Gallery Korea, “Soul Ideologies,” New York, NY
2009 Tabla Rasa Gallery, “The Portrait Painted and Personal,” Brooklyn, NY
2008 A Gathering of the Tribes, “Being in a Lone Space,” New York, NY

2007 Broome Street Gallery, “My Body, Myself,” New York, NY
2006 Lascano Gallery, “Gender,” Great Barrington, MN
2005 Spike Gallery, “Nurturing the New ’05,” New York, NY
2005 Exit Art, “Homomuseum & Archive Project,” New York, NY
2002 Ciao Bella, “Deep Beauty,” Brooklyn, NY
2002 Diesel Art Gallery, “Inaugural Exhibition,” Brooklyn, NY
2001 The Hall of Art, “Dodeca Mensual Salon II,” Brooklyn, NY
1996 Tivoli Artist Co-op, “Head to Toe, the Figure,” Tivoli, NY
1995 Smith Township Arts Council, Mills Pond House Gallery, “The Larger Woman,” Smithtown, NY

Videos:
2012 The Hungry Grlz Project: “A Bacchanalian Dining Experiment” by Giustina Surbone and Daniel Smyksy
2012 “A Bacchanalian Banquet At Flux Factory 2012" by Giustina Surbone and Daniel Smyksy
2009 Quintalog "The Portrait Painted and Personal" by Jennie Bourne
2008 Being in A Lone Space by James Kalm

Commissions:
2012 Flux Factory, “Bacchanalian Banquet,” Banquet for America Experiment, Long Island City, NY

Collections:
Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY: Painting #23 in Remarked Upon Book by Robin Ross
Work in Private Collections

Bibliography:

Rewriting Herstory Catalogue Volume Two, Victory Hall Press 2022
Time Out NY, Critic's Pick: Queer Bodies by Ethan LaQroix, August 31, 2011
The Body-Nothing Else, How Women Approach their Bodies, Paintings #127August 20, 2011
7th Edition Pool Art Fair New York 2010 Catalogue
Gallery Korea Exhibition Series 2009 Catalogue
Video by Jenny Bourne, BourneDigital.com “Quintalogue: Five Women Artists at Tabla Rasa Gallery, Part #3. What is
Painted? What is Personal?” 2009
NY Daily News, ...& around the town, Page 39, "Sleeping Quentin," Reproduction, Friday, March 6th, 2009

Manuel Macarrulla, Pintamanuel. Review: "The Portrait: Painted and Personal" http://pintamanuel.blogspot.com

Robert Roth & Arnold Sacher. And Then, Page 65 (NY) , "Drag #3," reproduction 2008

James Kalm. The Kalm Report. “Being in a lone space. Surbone & Ross at Tribes.” 2008
"Two Shine Bright at Tribes Gallery's Lone Space," Brooklyn Courier (NY) 2008 Robert Roth & Arnold Sacher.
Harrison, Helen A. “75 Statements about Women’s Bodies in a Didactic Exhibition.” The New York Times, April 2 1995