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| JP Terlizzi, Sweet Talk, 2020, Archival pigment print, 21″ x 14″, Edition of 10, $1500 |
It is difficult for me to articulate the joy that I feel every year when I’m presented with a plate of my grandmother’s signature rice dressing, filled with parsley and turkey gizzards galore, or how giddy I get when I'm granted the privilege of organizing the Christmas cookies to be left out for the holiday party, a task that my creative hands have loved since I was little. The holiday season, undoubtedly, revolves around cooking for others and ourselves, and the elation that seems to go hand-in-hand with traditions that center food is something that Photographers Showcase Artist JP Terlizzi is more than familiar with.
In The Good Dishes, the body of work initially showcased on photo-eye's website, Terlizzi keeps his eye steadfast on the tableware that signals that a meal is special. In the new series of photographs, Holding Arabesque, he continues to prioritize the nostalgic object as the activating point of the work, with ornate gravy boats, melamine dishes and silver filigree galore. However, unlike the subjects of the images that introduced him to us with The Good Dishes, the food that Terlizzi uses as a tool for reflection upon community ties is truly unbound from the shackles of the kitchenware that attempts to hold it.
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| JP Terlizzi, Beat It, 2020, Archival pigment print, 21″ x 14″, Edition of 10, $1500 |
The still lives that are presented in Holding Arabesque are a delightful collision of formal and playful. In Beat It, oblong, unwieldy eggs balance on top of an old-fashioned beater in a precarious tower, with one already lost to the tablecloth below. The gentle, sloping lines of the egg beater and the bright yellow of the single exposed yolk guide the viewer’s eyes up the impossible tower of eggs. The strength of this image lies in its ability to harness the power of novelty and poetry simultaneously; though the subject itself may be silly or commonplace, the attention to composition that has been paid by Terlizzi elevates this image. It is no longer speaking about just the nostalgic tool in question or the comfort food of eggs in Western culture, but it is also speaking to the difficult (and, if we’re being honest, often comical) nature of “balance” in contemporary life.
View more images from Holding Arabesque and learn more about JP Terlizzi below!
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| JP Terlizzi, Golden Berry, 2020, Archival pigment print, 21″ x 14″, Edition of 10, $1500 |
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| JP Terlizzi, Mouse Trap, 2021, Archival pigment print, 21″ x 14″, Edition of 10, $1500 |
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| JP Terlizzi, Above the Curve, 2020, Archival pigment print, 21″ x 14″, Edition of 10, $1500 |
>> View the entire Holding Arabesque portfolio! <<
>> photo-eye Conversation with Anne Kelly and JP Terlizzi <<
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Print costs are current up to the time of posting and are subject to change.
JP Terlizzi is a Photographer's Showcase Artist through photo-eye Gallery.
For more information, and to purchase prints by JP Terlizzi please contact Gallery Director Anne Kelly or Gallery Assistant Delaney Hoffman, or you may also call us at 505-988-5152 x202