My name is Giuseppe Pirone.  I am from Boston, Massachusetts.  I received a BA degree from Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri, and an MFA degree from the San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, Cailfornia.  I have lived and worked in the United States, Italy, Guatemala, Japan and Australia.  My work is in private collections and museums in the United States, Australia, Japan, and Italy.  I currently  live and work in Saint  Louis, Missouri.  I have been in Saint Louis since September,1983 when I returned to the United States after 14 years away. I had been living in Italy, Guatemala, and Australia. 

For many years I have been intrigued with circles and arcs;  with systems and modularity; with repetition and repeatability; with mathematical progressions and with movement implied or actual.   I began by making game systems, based on sculptures which allowed the viewer, or myself, to manipulate the sculptures' painted components.  Some were on the floor, others on the wall. some were on tables or were hanging from the ceiling.  Some floated in water; but they all involved the use of colour, movement , changing relationships, and the idea of impermanent  or temporary placement.  These "games" evolved becoming more sculptural and rather complex to fabricate and assemble.  Eventually I abandoned the use of colour and worked directly with the unpainted surfaces of the materials used.  The complexity of the  pieces and the need for a simple and effecient building method led to a search for less complex, inexpensive, and easily obtainable materials.  or, rather, a simple and easy to use material that would allow me to do what I wanted.  I turned to plywood almost exclusively.  

 I find plywood to be ideal for making circles and arches and other round shapes.  It is relatively inexpensive and allows me to make the modules, the repetitive shapes in the sizes which are necesssary  to make the sculptures.  It sands readily, and it is easily shaped with sanding discs and drums.  I am able to make the component pieces quickly and easily out of plywood. After the fabrication, I then  assemble the piece much like a brick layer or tile-setter would work.  (Some of the more recent pieces have hundreds and hundreds of modular plywood components).  

The size and shape of the module determines the work.  Most of the time I work from an idea first, and then I make a drawing. Although I do a lot of drawing, those drawings generally are generated from the finished sculptural works or from other concepts.  The drawing I do after the idea is a working drawing, a blueprint, indicating the hows and whys of fabrication and assembly, and it generally is tossed away after the piece is finished. 

I  have the whole piece in my mind before I start working with the plywood. I do little to influence the way the sculpture will look as I am assembling it, other than sanding the wood smooth and finishing it with a protective coating, if needed.  In effect, after the initial idea is solidified, and the components are fabricated, the piece determines itself once the assembly process begins.  For example, if the idea is: to take 155 plywood arcs, 42" across, and stack them with their edges exactly aligned. Then use 2" as the measurement between the end of the the top piece and the end of the piece underneath it. Then rotate or adjust the top piece to the 2" point, making certain that the edges are aligned. The process is repeated with another arc; and then another, and another. That is what i am obligated to do until I run out of material. When I do, the piece is finished.  (The process I described can be seen in its finished form on the home page of this site.  It is the plywood "curled" piece at the top of the page).

I started the "Twin Series" pieces after meeting a pair of identicial twins.  They were but they weren't identical.  I made a series of work based on the concept that  a pair of identical sculptures with one of them presented in a different postion to its mirror image, or twin, will not appear to be identical.  Some of the twin series pieces are on this site.

Most recently I have been invoved with The Nu-Art Series, (www.thenu-artseries.org) a not for profit arts organization dedicated to providing space and organizing exhibits, performances and concerts for visual artists,  musicians, and writers of colour, women and other minorities, as well as artists who choose not to show or perform in commercial venues.  We also arrange for artists to show and talk about their work to school children and neighborhood community groups.  Early in  2005, Hamiett Bluett, the baritone saxophone player of the World Saxophone Quartet did a perfomance piece with two local muscians, a local jazz pianist and with a drummer,  who had never played jazz before and who had only performed in his church. Bluett then repeated the concert the following day for children at a local elementry school.   The first concert was perfomed in the St Louis Urban  League facilites.  We have also presented numerous exhibits for both graduate and undergraduate students of the art departments of Webster University and Washington University,  two St. Louis schools.  We had a gospel choir sing in my studio, and have hosted exhibitions for young and emerging artists as well as established artists living and working in St Louis' "loft district".  We also presented an exhibition of African Art for the art department of the University of Missouri, St. Louis.  Following the African Art exhibition we  presented the work of two young  artists from Webster University: One from Jamaica and one from Russia.  After that exhbition, in March 2006 we had an exhibition for the sculpture students from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, illinois. 

The Nu-Art series has recently moved into new premises on Locust Street in mid town St Louis, near St Louis University.  We have  4000 sf of gallery and office space.