Artist Statement

For the past 15 years my work has exclusively investigated the portraits of friends, family, and fellow artists. The confrontational gaze of my subject toward the viewer has remained constant…so has my search for a narrative based on both faces and facture.

Flannery O’Connor once wrote that technique is something that grows out of the material. Over the years, I have found this to be true in my own experimentation with oils. In this current series, technique for me was something that grew out of circumstance. The birth of my daughter 6 years ago prompted me to establish a non-toxic studio. As I removed turpentine, varnish, and oil paint from my studio, I found myself replacing these mediums with materials with which I had little history.

Remembering back to a crewel embroidery piece I did as a child gave me the idea to incorporate all of my current interests into portraits of wool. Using wool as a primary medium allowed me to make more of a long-term commitment to each piece. It was my hope that this visible sense of time applied to each piece would translate into an extended amount of time that my viewer was willing to commit to each portrait.

From a distance these pieces continue to read as paintings and only closer inspection reveals their true identity. It is my hope that this discovery would cause my viewer to advance and then retreat as they are both introduced to a family portrait and a contemporary re-interpretation of traditional wool work.

Cayce Zavaglia

b. 1971 Valparaiso, IN

EDUCATION

1998 MFA, Washington University, Saint Louis, MO
1994 BA, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
1998-2000 Drawing Instructor, Webster University, Saint Louis, MO
1998-2000 Drawing Instructor, Meramec Community College, Saint Louis, MO
1998 Art Therapist, Jewish Center for the Aged, Saint Louis, MO
1997 Elective Painting Instructor, Washington University, Saint Louis, MO

EXHIBITIONS

2008 PULSE New York (Lyons Wier/Ortt Gallery), New York, NY
2007 Regional Arts Commission, Saint Louis, Mo
2005 Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences, Staten Island, NY
2005 Space B Gallery, New York, NY
2004 Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, Saint Louis, MO
2000 Cecille R. Hunt Gallery, Saint Louis, MO
1999 Adams Hall Gallery, Wheaton, IL
1999 Innsbrook Estates, Innsbrook, MO
1998 Critical Mass, Saint Louis, MO
1996 Craighead-Green Gallery, Dallas, TX

PUBLICATIONS

New American Paintings: Volume 53, 08/01/04
Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, 05/09/04