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Julie Peppito: Love is the Key

Montserrat Gallery

July 18, 2022 - September 16, 2022

Reception:  Tuesday, September 6, 5-7pm

Julie Peppito: Love is the Key presents a series of recent and new artworks that interrogates the political and environmental impacts of our consumer-based culture. An activist and artist, Peppito uses her artmaking to draw connections between our dependence upon cheaply made and disposable goods and its destructive effects on the planet and on human health. Peppito conveys this urgent message through the creation of subversively exquisite, highly embellished mixed media drawings and paintings that are often heavily layered with the cast-off detritus of mass-production, such as fabric, buttons, beads, plastic toys, and other single-use plastics.  In many of her compositions, Peppito juxtaposes dense areas of color and found objects with delicate and detailed drawing—from the monumental mixed media work Wake Up! to smaller works on paper, such as We are in Danger and Love is the Key. But as the title of her exhibition suggests, Peppito’s message is not simply defeatist or alarmist. She believes that awareness, action, and compassion can positively change the course of our planet, create a more equitable society, and sustain a healthy environment. In other words, love is indeed the key.

In addition to over 15 mixed media artworks, the exhibition also includes Peppito’s collaborative and fantastical drawings with her husband, the illustrator and graphic novelist, Gideon Kendall.

 

About Julie Peppito

Julie Peppito combines multiple materials in her sculptures, installations, collages, and playground art. She has been an exhibiting artist in New York City for 31 years and has had nine solo exhibitions. Her work has been exhibited at The Long Island Children’s Museum, Kentler International Drawing Space, Art in General, PS122, HEREart, Momenta, NURTUREart, Ethan Cohen Gallery, and many other venues. She has received a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Sculpture and has made art for three New York Park’s Department playgrounds.

She holds an MFA with a concentration in sculpture from Alfred University in Alfred, NY and she received her BFA from The Cooper Union in New York City.  You can see her playground art at J.J. Byrne Playground and James Forten Playground, both in Brooklyn. Her work has been in The New York Times and The Daily Beast. Currently, she has a giant “bird condo” on display at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. She was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She lives, creates and teaches art in Kensington, Brooklyn with her partner (artist, illustrator, graphic novelist) Gideon Kendall and their son Milo.

 

Image: Wake Up!, 2018, canvas, trim, thread, acrylic paint, wood, found objects, dimensional fabric paint, and fabric.