Dellamarie Parrilli

Dellamarie Parrilli
Born	Dellamarie Parrilli (1949-02-28) February 28, 1949 Chicago
Nationality	American/Italian
Education	DePaul University
Known for	Creative Professional
Notable work	Oil's, Acrylics, Watercolor, Polycarbon, Mixed Media, Experimental
Movement	Abstract Expressionist
Website	www.parrilli.com

Dellamarie Parrilli (born 1949) is an American artist, "a born master of her medium", is recognized as one of the most talented contemporary abstract painters painting today. Parrilli is a self-taught artist; whose work is wide ranging, ever changing, and restlessly experimental. "Her prior extensive background in music and dance is reflected in her work. She has transformed that creativity from the stage to the studio where she literally sings and dances on her canvases . It is easy to see who her artistic forbearers of the 21st century are: Willem de Kooning, Vasily Kandinsky and Joan Mitchell among others. She continues in their creative tradition, but from her own unique perspective and introspective vision with a joie de vivre that she shares with us." (Nancy di Benedetto, Professor, Marymount Manhattan College, Lecturer, Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2002)

Early life and education

Parrilli, who was born nine weeks premature, a twin, in Chicago, began her life on February 28, fighting to survive. A versatile artist with an accomplished background, Parrilli’s life has been a creative juggernaut filled with more twists and turns than a soap opera. Creativity and challenge, have been and continue to be, a constant in Parrilli’s life. Born and raised on Chicago's north side she attended McPherson Elementary School and Amundsen High School. During her youth, Parrilli’s father was killed by a drunk driver, and 3 months later, her family, surviving a devastating house fire, were left homeless. Parrilli, only 11 years old at the time, embraced her creativity ... music, writing, and art … she had found her voice. While earning a BA in music from DePaul University, Parrilli studied voice with Anne Perillo, tap, jazz and ballet with Lou Conte of Hubbard Street Dance Studio, Improv at Second City and The Annoyance Theater, and funded her education by doing theater, voice-overs and singing in clubs (a union member of Equity, SAG, AFTRA, AEA). Parrilli released an album, Dellamarie LIVE. Heralded by the Las Vegas Press as a "triple threat" and delivering a performance in Chicago so powerful that the Chicago Independent Bulletin called her "the greatest talent since Judy Garland at her peak", Parrilli set her sights on Broadway, and spent the next 5 years writing JUDY: The Songs And Stories Of A Legend."

But as she was about to realize her dream, she was diagnosed with Lyme Disease and Sjorgren's Syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease. Doctors told her she would never sing again. Her dream and life as she knew it came to an abrupt end. A born survivor, Parrilli reinvented herself turning her creative energies to designing and metalworking one of a kind wearable art and paintings. She also teamed up with a partner to open a restaurant, creating and overseeing every aspect … concept, menu, recipes, interior design, construction. The restaurant quickly won national acclaim, with rave reviews, several “Best New Restaurant” awards, as well as the prestigious National Association Of Women Business Owner’s New Venture Award … and was selected to cater the Blue Jeans Bash Inaugural Party in Washington, D.C., for President Bill Clinton. But fate, once again, dealt a life altering blow to Parrilli. Viciously attacked twice in six months – by the same dog, Parrilli, was again, gravely ill. The serious complications from the attacks forced her to close her restaurant. Literally fighting for her life she desperately searched for answers. She discovered that her new home had construction defects and was riddled with toxic molds and mycobacterium and that she had systemic mycobacterium infections and mold. Armed with her incredible spirit and sheer determination, Parrilli gathered a team of world renowned doctors. Although marked by tragedy and adversity, Parrilli’s spiritual resonance is evident in her art and her life philosophy. A born survivor, who has turned her voice, triumphantly resonant, to her artwork … “Parrilli brings a breath of fresh air to the contemporary art scene. Technically a born master, Parrilli’s prior extensive professional background in music and dance is reflected in her work … she literally sings and dances on her canvases with a joie de vivre that she shares with us.” - Marry di Benedetto, Professor, Marymount Manhattan College, Lecturer, Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2002

Artistic style

Parrilli is a self-taught artist influenced by abstract expressionism. Art critics have compared her work to that of abstract masters like Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Joan Mitchell, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Mark Tobey, Mark Rothko, Henri Michaux and Jean-Paul Riopelle.^[1]

Parrilli, "intrepid experimenter" works in all mediums including: Oil painting, Acrylic paint, murals, jewelry design, Watercolor, Metal Smithing, mixed media, assemblages, panels, sculptures, cubes and photography. Art critic Ed McCormack wrote, "Having taken up her brushes after a severe lung infection curtailed her career as a singer and actress, from the beginning Parrilli approached composition as a form of visual music. Indeed, the first paintings of hers that I encountered in an exhibition at Marymount College in 2004 seemed firmly in the gestural tradition of the branch of abstract expressionism for which the critic Harold Rosenberg coined the term "action painting"."He goes on to say, "it is doubtful that even Parrilli herself can explain how she accomplishes her peculiar aesthetic alchemy. One can only surmise that she arrives at her technical finesse via some deeply intuitive means, orchestrating the canvas in the process of painting in the best tradition of the Abstract Expressionists ... Certainly Dellamarie Parrilli is one of the most worthy successors."

In their article in the NYA, Ann Landi and Edward Rubin wrote, "And then along comes an artist like Parrilli, who is entirely self-taught and by and large unaware of the major currents that shaped 20th century art. Biography is not always relevant to aesthetic understanding, but hers does shed some light on how she comes by the audacity to tackle seemingly worn-out formulas, to give them a mighty shake, and to conjure up something that is all her own."According to Mary Anne Redding in the Preston Contemporary Art Center's exhibition catalog, Xhibit, "Parrilli moves toward the meditative in her use of mark making emulating ancient Chinese traditions of calligraphy. Fluid or staccato, her symbols become part of a large conundrum of resolving the problems of life through art. Her process in painting weaves into her life coming full circle back to an open ended dialogue she wishes to have with the viewer."^[2] For Renee Phillips of Manhattan Arts International, her "paintings are visual journeys to self-discovery. Viewers probe their translucent layers where inner and outer worlds coalesce, contrast and harmonize with each other. The rhythmic compositions and tactile surfaces resonate with passion and inspiration."

Art Acquisitor, a review of her art says, "Astounding in their luminosity, Ms Parrilli's canvases express the struggle with light and color. When gazing at her work, viewers are marveled by the density of color—monochromatic or blended multiple colors—which makes the streaks and windows of pure light that much more brilliant ... Along with this heightened sense of reality, Ms Parrilli presents a calm vigor, inspiring in its magnitude and magnificence."

Art

Regarding Parilli's "Seeing the Light" 2004 exhibition at Marymount College, Ed McCormack stated, "the manner in which Parrilli saturates her large canvases with color conveys the sensation of light rather than of inert pigment. Light seems to radiate from her paintings with almost supernatural chromatic intensity."

Her painting, "Reflections, is described as "a stately vertical canvas dominated by brilliant blue hues with frosted areas of white glowing through at its center. Few contemporary painters can evoke such chromatic shimmer with so severely limited a palette as Parrilli does here, where her coloristic restraint pays off stunningly, suggesting a numinous, incandescent spiritual realm."

Parrilli's acrylic paintings were on exhibit at Ezair Gallery in Southampton, New York in 2006. These were commented on by Ann Landi and Edward Rubin, who stated, "Her mastery of spontaneous image making has grown ever more sure in the last couple of years, and the paintings she exhibited here are among the best she has ever done." Her solo exhibition at Walter Wickiser Gallery, New York, NY in 2009 were acrylics on translucent plastic sheeting which, according to McCormack, enhances the ethereal quality of her luminous hues and acrylic "Confessions of an Adventuress," a 40-inch square oil and acrylic painting by Parrilli was featured in the ARTnews magazine where Nancy di Benedetto, a professor at Marymount College and lecturer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was quoted to have said, "bold radiant colors leap from the canvas, she literally sings and dances on her canvas ... continues tradition of deKooning, Kandinsky, Mitchell with joie de vivre she shares with all."^[3]

Of her 2006 exhibition at Ezair Gallery in Southampton, New York, art critics Landi and Rubin wrote, "The most buoyant of the works—such as Asian Dreams, Wind Song, and Dolphin Dance—combine stains of luminous, neon color with drips and splatters in yellow, black and lime green. The upshot is a lyrical intensity and chromatic brilliance that occasionally rivals Kandinsky. There are also hints of Far Eastern influences in the Zen-like calligraphic, central image of Alpha Omega and in the colors and vertical format of Asian Dreams, which calls to mind a panel from a Chinese or Japanese screen painting."

Panel

Some of Parrilli's works on exhibit at the Preston Contemporary Art Center in 2009 were panel paintings. Las Cruces Bulletin wrote, "Paintings inspired by nature capture the same impressions of transparency as those caused by light on water and changes in the weather. Parrilli paints on translucent sheeting that enhances the ethereal quality of designs of luminous hues. Employing the industrial sheets in a variety of surfaces. Parrilli offers them as innate parts of her compositions. Their inner swirls provide a dramatic counterpoint to vibrant colors in works that literally play with light."

"Art of the Trapeze" and "When It All Comes True" were two of Parrilli's pieces from her Into the Light series that were included in the exhibition. Mary Anne Redding wrote in the exhibition catalog, "Their inner swirls provide a dramatic counterpoint to vibrant colors in works that literally play with light. The paintings break barriers by going beyond 2-D, becoming vast, mysterious explorations of the formless states of Zen."^[4] Redding goes on to say that "Dellamarie Parrilli lets the subtle effects of light and a cacophony of color fill her work, creating paintings that are both dynamic and meditative ... she wants to spontaneously give the illusion of translucence and immateriality emphasizing the emergence of interplaying worlds, visual ideas and visions."

Critical Acclaim

"Parrilli Lights Up Madison Avenue … Parrilli continues to climb toward the Light and to celebrate the divine in an oeuvre which seems to grow more radiant with each succeeding exhibition. Indeed, her power as a colorist is such that it often appears that she has dipped her brush in liquid light rather than physical pigment." — Ed McCormack, Editor-in-Chief of Gallery & Studio. Former writer for Village Voice and Rolling Stone

"Hoping to capture impressions of transparency, "layers of life and spirit and motion," Parrilli, who lives in a world surrounded by light and air, water and sky, set off on a quest to find and create an analogue for the luminosity of the natural world … using an industrial material for a ground and experimenting with mixed media Parrilli has created surfaces over which light ripples and refracts and an imagery that appears to be infused with a different level of drama and intensity than can be attained through traditional means. Taking brave chances: enlarging her vocabulary, expanding her chromatic choices, and experimenting with innovative techniques to pursue her personal vision … Parrilli's new works do indeed take one into a realm suffused with radiant light." — Ann Landi, Contributing Editor of ARTnews , Author of Schrimer Encyclopedia of Art

"Parrilli is one of those rare artists who comes at things from another direction, proceeding intuitively with nary a glance at the art magazines to see which way the winds of change might be blowing. Her intuitive approach springs directly from her life experience in a way that it is not common amid the self conscious strategizing of the post modern era. Without expecting an artist so restlessly experimental to settle into complacency or stop surprising us with each new exhibition, it seems safe to say that Parrilli's visual vocabulary seems indicative of a mature direction … it is clear that the exquisite simplicity she has achieved signals a profound arrival." — Ed McCormack, Editor-in-Chief of Gallery & Studio. Former writer for Village Voice and Rolling Stone

"Dellamarie Parrilli brings a breath of fresh air to the contemporary art scene! Virtuostic compositions open up windows to the world and define a greater sense of reality…a born master of her medium…her compositions have a spontaneity that is contagious and immediately envelopes and excites...bold, radiant colors leap from the canvas...she literally sings and dances on her canvas…continues tradition of de Kooning, Kandinsky, Mitchell, but from her own unique perspective and introspective vision with a joie de vivre that she shares with us. We are lucky indeed to welcome her into the mainstream of contemporary American art." — Nancy di Benedetto, Professor, Marymount Manhattan College, Lecturer, Metropolitan Museum of Art

"Dellamarie Parrilli utilizes the density of abstraction in order to create an intricate link between color, concept and emotion. Traces of thick, swift brush strokes cover the surface of each canvas giving way to sporadic bursts of color that lend shape to deep, metaphysical ideas. Not overly concerned with realistic representations, the artist's subject is both her own inner feelings and the viewer. Parrilli's work is clearly hermeneutic yet it reaches out to the observant eye through the layers of color intensity. Parrilli flawlessly demonstrates an expertise that can reflect a thorough assessment of what lies within." — Jill Conner, NY Writer, NY Arts, Contemporary Sculpture, Artnet.com, Art Papers and New Art Examiner

"Parrilli Lights Up Madison Avenue … Parrilli continues to climb toward the Light and to celebrate the divine in an oeuvre which seems to grow more radiant with each succeeding exhibition. Indeed, her power as a colorist is such that it often appears that she has dipped her brush in liquid light rather than physical pigment. — Ed McCormack, Editor-in-Chief of Gallery & Studio. Former writer for Village Voice and Rolling Stone

"In everything Dellamarie Parrilli does the beauty of composition seems to be her top concern. Parrilli who brought art to her music is now bringing music to her art and the songs are as lovely as ever." — Edward Rubin, NY Art Writer, NY Art Examiner, Member of International Association of Art Critics

"Parrilli orchestrates the canvas in the best tradition of the Abstract Expressionists who elevated American painting to preeminence in the art world by emulating the improvisational methods of jazz musicians. One of the most worthy successors of these "action painters," Parrilli generates visual excitement... Her broad layered strokes, laid down with a palette knife knitting together her compositions with a muscular thrust, provide her signature contribution to the tradition. Parrilli's synthesis of subjective emotion and natural inspiration imbues her compositions with a powerful lyricism and triumphant spiritual resonance." — Ed McCormack, Editor-in-Chief of Gallery & Studio. Former writer for Village Voice and Rolling Stone

"That Parrilli achieves a similar chromatic intensity and mystical resonance with the traditional medium of oil makes her work all the more remarkable. Indeed, few painters come close to her ability to infuse color with luminosity. Coupled with her chromatic sensitivity, Parrilli possesses a natural gestural fluidity that enhances the immediacy of her canvases immeasurably, imbuing her compositions with rhythmic vigor and vitality. Her painterly vocabulary is so varied as to seem virtually unlimited. Parrilli is a restless and intrepid experimenter who refuses to limit her aesthetic horizons. Intricate overall compositions…lyrical color…bold strokes…coloristically complex…symphonic in visual terms…all off Dellamarie Parrilli's paintings are possessed of a singular grandeur which sets her apart as an artist who appears destined to endure." — Ed McCormack, Editor-in-Chief of Gallery & Studio. Former writer for Village Voice and Rolling Stone

"Chicago-based artist Dellamarie Parrilli brings a breath of fresh air to the contemporary art scene! An aura of spirituality is pervasive which exuded an uplifting feeling of transcendence and fearlessness. She achieves all this by using bold, radiant colors that leap from the canvas with a mastery of confident brush strokes. Her virtuostic compositions open up windows to the world and define a greater sense of reality. Technically, she is a born master of her medium. She uses no preliminary sketches thus her compositions have a spontaneity that is contagious and immediately envelopes and excites the viewer. We are lucky indeed to welcome her into the mainstream of contemporary American art." — Nancy diBenedetto, Professor, Marymount Manhattan College, Lecturer, Metropolitan Museum of Art

"Parrilli doesn't fit easily into known categories, although her work is every bit as up-to-the-minute as anything emerging from Bushwick, Brooklyn, the latest enclave of hot young artists. Parrilli, is outrageously gifted, with unstoppable creativity …" "Her work partakes of many strategies that have become familiar in the art of the recent past: spontaneous gestures, working in mediums of oil, acrylic, and watercolor with palette knife or brushes, or deploying a drip-and-spatter technique; she does a Pollock-like dance of drips and skeins of paint in colors that would have flabbergasted Jackson; she has a way with a Surrealist language of biomorphic imagery; she organizes near-transparent panes and shards of paint into works that have the glowing translucence of stained glass, and recently has made free-form mixed-media assemblages on polycarbon, which have evolved into three-dimensional objects … … … but the hot colors (this gal has no fear of neon) and free-form imagery are all her own … … … and a PARRILLI is always recognizably a PARRILLI" — Ann Landi, 2014, Contributing Editor of ARTnews, Author of Schrimer Encyclopedia of Art

"The flow of Parrilli's massive abstract forms, executed in the unusual medium of watercolor on canvas possess a unique luminosity, abetted by a combination of majestic scale, chromatic subtlety and tonal delicacy that eludes even "poured paint" Color Field painters like Helen Frankenthaler, Paul Jenkins, and Morris Louis. A dynamic "wet into wet" technique send liquidic areas of blue and purple hues rippling out from large circular and semicircular shapes in a manner that creates the illusion that the pools of diluted aquarelle are still in active motion. Indeed the entire series is characterized by a sense of flux, the graceful movement of filmy veils of color dancing on the picture plane, its two- dimensional flatness opened up and imbued with a sense of depth by Parrilli's multilayered approach to washes of vibrant color". "A more familiar facet of this versatile artist's ever expanding oeuvre –– at least to her long-term critical champions and collectors –– can be seen in Parrilli's recent acrylic paintings on canvas. These untitled large-scale compositions, ranging from 72 by 60 inches upwards to 72 by 108 inches, absorb and update the entire coloristic and tactile vocabulary of Abstract Expressionism for the postmodern era on the scale to which it has the most impact. One such work employs muscular juicy pink red, blue, and white strokes broad enough to have been painted with a broom rather than with an ordinary brush. They swerve, swirl and interlock dynamically in thick coloristically variegated areas of heavy impasto with an energy akin to de Kooning". "Parrilli, a singer -dancer, before a life threatening illness aborted her entertainment career … biographical information relevant only because of the bearing it has on the energy and grace that she brings to her visual art. Indeed, Dellamarie Parrilli is still very much of the singer – dancer" — Ed McCormack, Editor-in-Chief of Gallery & Studio, New York, NY 2014, Former writer for Village Voice and Rolling Stone

Exhibitions

Parrilli's exhibitions, include:^[5][6][7]

Publications

Ed McCormack compiled a catalog of Parrilli's works in 2004, "Dellamarie Parrilli's Radiant Contemporary Color Music."^[8]

Honors and Awards

Some honors and awards worn by Parrilli are:^{[1][7][9][10]}

• 2002: Richard W. and Wanda Gardner Memorial Award for "Searching For The Divine", Northern Indiana Arts Association, 59th Annual Salon Show. Juror: Paul Sierra
• 2002: Manhattan Arts International Artist Showcase Award for "Manhattan Rhythm" in the “I Love Manhattan” competition. Jurors: Edward Rubin and Renée Phillips
• 2002: Merit Award, "Reactions: Living in the New America", Union Street Gallery, Chicago Heights, IL Juror: Ardell Arthur, MA, Art Historian
• 2003: Best of Show, for "Rhapsody In Blue", Jazz: Visual Improvisations, Target Gallery, Alexandria, VA, Juror: Sam Gilliam, international artist
• 2003: Chelsea Global Showcase Winner for "Manhattan Rhythm", Amsterdam Whitney International Fine Art, Inc.^[11]
• 2003: Award Of Excellence for "Desire", Manhattan Arts International, 20th Anniversary Competition, New York, NY, Jurors: Nancy di Benedetto, Renee Phillips, NY
• 2003: Award Of Excellence for "Journey To Self Discovery", Manhattan Arts International, "The Healing Power Of Art", New York
• 2004: Artist Showcase Award Winner, for "Life, Love And The Art Of Celebration", Manhattan Arts International, The Healing Power Of Art, Juror: E. Jay Weiss,

References

External links

• Official website
• Dellamarie Parrilli