Vincent Castiglia

Last updated
Castiglia in 2017 Vincent at Ink Days Zurich, Switzerland, tribute to HR Giger.jpg
Castiglia in 2017

Vincent Castiglia (born April 8, 1982 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American painter and tattoo artist. His work includes Stings of the Lash, Remedy for the Living and As Gods. His work has been featured in countless news outlets and Art and Lifestyle Publications. Castiglia has made various television appearances, internationally and domestically and has collaborated with many musical artists and painters throughout his career.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Personal life

Castiglia describes his paintings as crystallizations of his experiences, freed from the psyche. He derives his inspiration from his personal experiences which categorizes his work as allegorical. Vincent, in the privacy of his studio, practices a kind of modern day phlebotomy, siphoning the life force which contains his own psychic energy and transforms it into a creative outlet. [1] His work is heavily focused on the symbiosis of birth and death, the transience of human beings the pitfalls of mortality and Mysticism. Castiglia has credited his 2009 album art for Triptykon as "a project of enormous depth for me, conceptually as well as visually. I think the resonance between Triptykon's music, Giger's art and my work is extremely powerful, and it coalesces in quite an amazing, and singular way." Castiglia designed a specially created portrait of the members of the group, painted in his own blood. Singer and guitarist Tom Gabriel Fischer commended Vincent's work for Triptykon's album Eparistera Daimones and has expressed that he feels "infinitely grateful that he has lent us his incredible talent, not least because I know he incorporates as much passion, darkness and pain into his work as I do, too." [2] On his work being having been exclusively painted in human blood, Castiglia has said,

"The Sleep"

Collection: Martin Eric Ain Wiki - The Sleep (c) Vincent Castiglia.jpg
"The Sleep"

Collection: Martin Eric Ain
"Gravity"

Collection: Gregg Allman Gravity- 24 x 38 inches- Collection- Gregg Allman(c) 2006 Vincent Castiglia.jpg
"Gravity"

Collection: Gregg Allman
"Feeding" Wiki - Feeding (c) Vincent Castiglia.jpg
"Feeding"

I sought the most direct and personal connection with my work, one that could not lie or be reproduced. Although the paintings are often thematic, they are also quite visceral, and I believe it is because of this that the response has been so strong. The creative process is very honest and cathartic for me, and is an intermingling of feelings and experiences, aspirations and visions, all spontaneously congealing on the canvas. [3]

Career

Castiglia's paintings are described as "monochromatic tableaux examining life, death, and the human condition" on his official website. Castiglia is the first American artist to receive a solo exhibition invitation from Oscar Award-winning artist, H.R. Giger, to exhibit at the H.R. Giger Museum, in Gruyeres, Switzerland. Remedy for the Living, the 1st solo exhibition of paintings by Vincent Castiglia opened at the H.R. Giger Museum Gallery on November 1, 2008, and closed in April 2009. In 2009, Vincent painted album art for Triptykon's 2010 debut release, Eparistera Daimones . The group is founded by former Hellhammer / Celtic Frost singer and guitarist Tom Gabriel Fischer. The album's art is an amalgamation of works by HR Giger (cover art), Vincent Castiglia (interior art), and Triptykon on "Eparistera Daimones". Castiglia's works on paper have been exhibited internationally and have been hung in many distinguished collections. In 2009, "Gravity", one of his most celebrated works of 2006, was acquired by rock musician, Gregg Allman. [4] In 2010, Castiglia's art was featured on the official poster for the MTV New Media Horror-Slasher Film, Savage County. Recently, in 2016, Castiglia painted a custom ESP electric guitar for Gary Holt of both Slayer and Exodus. This is a fully functional piece of art that is often played onstage by Gary. The Guitar, titled, "Lucifer," was painted exclusively in 18 viles of Gary's own blood. Shortly thereafter, Slayer also commissioned Castiglia to paint them a poster for their farewell tour, "Farewell". His surrealist work has been lauded by critics and has been compared to the works of artists such as Michelanglo, [5] Damien Hirst and Francis Bacon. [6] Another critic has said the following of his work,

In a sense, they're not paintings, they are hemorrhages. [7]

In 2018, a documentary film directed by John Borowoski, titled "Bloodlines: The Art and Life of Vincent Castiglia", was released. This film dived into Vincent's healing process and recovery, and his artwork.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Westchester County Center for the Arts

Psychocosm, Solo Exhibition, September 2014, White Plains, New York

Resurrection, Solo Exhibition, October, 2012, New York, New York

Sacrifices For The Sanguinary Age, Solo Exhibition, September, 2010, Toronto, Canada

Anathema, Vincent Castiglia And Shawn Barber, December, 2008, New York, New York

Remedy For The Living, Solo Exhibition, November 1St, 2008 – March 2009, Gruyeres, Switzerland

Group exhibitions

Invitational: Tarot Under Oath

Last Rites Gallery, January, 2014, New York, New York

Invitational: Taboo

Last Rites Gallery, July, 2012, New York, New York

Invitational: The Society For Art Of Imagination

Phantesten Museum, March, 2012, Vienna, Austria

Invitational: The Damned Show

Hastings Ballroom / Curated By Tangent Gallery, October 2010, Detroit, Michigan

Invitational: Blood, Sweat, And Fears

Sacred Gallery, October, 2010, New York, New York

Invitational: The Black Plagu

Congregation Gallery, July, 2010, Los Angeles, California

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">H. R. Giger</span> Swiss artist (1940–2014)

Hans Ruedi Giger was a Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as "biomechanical". Giger later abandoned airbrush for pastels, markers and ink. He was part of the special effects team that won an Academy Award for the visual design of Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi horror film Alien, and was responsible for creating the titular Alien itself. His work is on permanent display at the H.R. Giger Museum in Gruyères, Switzerland. His style has been adapted to many forms of media, including album covers, furniture, tattoos and video games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Body fluids in art</span>

Occasional use of body fluids such as blood, urine, feces, etc. in works of art is most common in shock art or transgressive art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Ofili</span> British painter

Christopher Ofili, is a British painter who is best known for his paintings incorporating elephant dung. He was Turner Prize-winner and one of the Young British Artists. Since 2005, Ofili has been living and working in Trinidad and Tobago, where he currently resides in the city of Port of Spain. He also has lived and worked in London and Brooklyn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Quinn</span> British painter and sculptor

Marc Quinn is a British contemporary visual artist whose work includes sculpture, installation, and painting. Quinn explores "what it is to be human in the world today" through subjects including the body, genetics, identity, environment, and the media. His work has used materials that vary widely, from blood, bread and flowers, to marble and stainless steel. Quinn has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Sir John Soane's Museum, the Tate Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Fondation Beyeler, Fondazione Prada, and South London Gallery. The artist was a notable member of the Young British Artists movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ross Bleckner</span> American artist

Ross Bleckner is an American artist. He currently lives and works in New York City. His artistic focus is on painting, and he held his first solo exhibition in 1975. Some of his art work reflected on the AIDS epidemic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stella Vine</span> English artist

Stella Vine is an English artist, who lives and works in London. Her work is figurative painting, with subjects drawn from personal life, as well as from rock stars, royalty, and other celebrities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Katz</span> American artist (born 1927)

Alex Katz is an American figurative artist known for his paintings, sculptures, and prints. Since 1951, Katz's work has been the subject of more than 200 solo exhibitions and nearly 500 group exhibitions throughout the United States and internationally. He is well known for his large paintings, whose bold simplicity and heightened colors are considered as precursors to Pop Art.

De Es Schwertberger, commonly known simply as De Es, is an Austrian artist, painter and modeller. His work has been shown in exhibitions in New York City, where he lived for a short time, and Switzerland.

Gerald Ferguson was a conceptual artist and painter who lived and taught in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Born in Cincinnati he was both a Canadian and US citizen. After receiving his MFA from Ohio University Ferguson taught at two institutions before coming to Canada in 1968, invited to teach at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) in Halifax. He continued to teach at NSCAD until his retirement in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augustus Vincent Tack</span> American painter

Augustus Vincent Tack (1870–1949) was an American painter of portraits, landscapes and abstractions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arpita Singh</span> Indian artist

Arpita Singh is an Indian artist. Known to be a figurative artist and a modernist, her canvases have both a story line and a carnival of images arranged in a curiously subversive manner. Her artistic approach can be described as an expedition without destination. Her work reflects her background. She brings her inner vision of emotions to the art inspired by her own background and what she sees around the society that mainly affects women. Her works also include traditional Indian art forms and aesthetics, like miniaturist painting and different forms of folk art, employing them in her work regularly.

Oleg A. Korolev is Russian artist whose paintings have been exhibited and represented in the private and corporate art collections of Russia, Europe, North America, and Australia.

Elizabeth H. Lidow was an American artist.

<i>Eparistera Daimones</i> 2010 studio album by Triptykon

Eparistera Daimones is the debut album by Swiss extreme metal band Triptykon, the most recent musical project of Thomas Gabriel Fischer, founding member of the pioneering heavy metal bands Hellhammer and Celtic Frost and industrial project Apollyon Sun.

Angel Otero was born 1981. He is a contemporary visual artist specializing in painting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Christopher</span> American painter

Tom Christopher is an American painter known for his expressionist urban paintings and murals, mostly of New York City. Christopher began as a commercial artist, and has become internationally recognized with galleries and exhibitions in France, Germany and Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Komarin</span>

Gary Komarin is an American artist. Born in New York City, Komarin is the son of a Czech architect and Viennese writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susanna Heller</span> American painter

Susanna Heller was a painter, who lived and worked in Brooklyn, New York. Born in New York City and raised in Montreal, she studied art in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She was a landed immigrant in Canada until 2006. She exhibits her work regularly in New York and in Toronto. She is known equally in Canada and the United States for her contributions to contemporary art as a painter. Her work is most well known for depictions of cities, primarily New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vivian Springford</span> American painter (1913–2003)

Vivian Springford (1913–2003) was an American painter and assemblage artist active in the second half of the 20th century. Springford's abstract paintings and collages are best known for their focus on using color to express captivating patterns and phenomena found in nature as well as from Chinese Calligraphy and Eastern forms of thought such as Taoism and Confucianism.

References

  1. "Home". Vincent Castiglia. Retrieved 2023-09-13.
  2. "Delineation II" . Retrieved 2023-09-13.
  3. Doralba Picerno (February 2008), Vincent Castiglia: Reign in Blood, Zero Tolerance Magazine
  4. New York Post, June 4th, 2009, pg. 15
  5. Allan Poe, Edgar (2008-04-17), "The murders in the rue morgue" , Selected Tales, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/owc/9780199535774.003.0010, ISBN   978-0-19-953577-4 , retrieved 2023-09-13
  6. "ARTisSpectrum – Agora Gallery's Fine Art Magazine" . Retrieved 2023-09-13.
  7. Jovanka Vuckovic (September 2008), The Blood is the Life, Rue Morgue Magazine