Donald Gialanella is an artist specializing in public art. Originally from Maplewood, NJ, he now works out of his studio in St Petersburg, Florida. Donald apprenticed with artist Louise Bourgeois after earning a BFA in sculpture from The Cooper Union in New York. Known for his larger-than-life sculptures in public and private collections across the United States, his sculptures are installed in over a dozen cities from California to New York. His background includes teaching art at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, and ten years as an Emmy winning television graphics producer in New York City.
Plenum Orb, 2013
Stainless Steel Object Assemblage, Steel
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
My artistic practice is concerned with the life-cycle of mass-produced consumer objects. I work with a wide range of unconventional materials incorporating “green” salvaged and reclaimed objects into the amalgam of my sculptural matrix, ranging from plastic to steel, toys to pots and pans.
We all know that you’re supposed to reduce, reuse and recycle, but for me, reuse and recycle has a deeper meaning.
I specialize in turning trash into art in order to focus attention on the need to use resources responsibly. The work deals with ecology, economy, and community in intent and execution. The orb serves as time-capsules that symbolizes how mass-produced objects are changing our world. Encapsulated objects from the local culture are “frozen” in time to be explored and contemplated in a new context.
Appreciating these common objects recombined in a new form as art, fosters a dialogue and calls for different forms of exposure, exchange of ideas and creativity. In this regard, the work generates provocative thought in several areas, from the promotion of a cultural dialogue, to the manifestation of artistic innovation and new creative use of available materials.
Reimagining Roanoke 