Nicola Filippo (May 27, 1957) is an American pop art

collage Collage (, from the french: coller, "to glue" or "to stick together";) is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. ...

artist.

Biography

Nicola Filippo is the playfully baroque nom de guerre of Guy Ayres who was born in

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria ...

1957. Little is known of his early years; when interviewed about his childhood, Filippo refers to it as "a chaotic household" and an "unconventional childhood". Filippo attended Otis College of Art and Design and the California College of the Arts. Upon completing his education, he traveled extensively in Italy, visiting many museums and churches and studying what had been done by earlier artists and seeking to incorporate it in his style. In the mid 1990s Filippo surfaced as a painter and sculptor of what he refers to as building blocks of his art work today. Much of this early work was destroyed by the artist. A pivotal point in Filippo's art career was when he photographed a collection of collage pieces by the artist

Ray Johnson Raymond Edward "Ray" Johnson (October 16, 1927 – January 13, 1995) was an American artist. Known primarily as a collagist and correspondence artist, he was a seminal figure in the history of Neo-Dada and early Pop art and was described as

for the 1999 Whitney Museum exhibit of Johnson's art work New York. Taking a financial outlook in 2000, Filippo launched a design and import line using Balinese silver, pearls, shell and Javanese scarves under the brand name of Mr. Guy. Represented by Priorities, a Los Angeles showroom, the line was successful until it was discontinued in 2007, which turned Filippo's attention entirely back to fine art. Filippo's collage pieces began to gain moderate attention; however due to the playful erotic content, the art work remained taboo for mainstream galleries. Some of the earliest shows were through the

Tom of Finland Foundation Touko Valio Laaksonen (8 May 1920 – 7 November 1991), pseudonym Tom of Finland, was a Finnish artist who made stylized highly masculinized homoerotic art, and influenced late 20th-century gay culture. He has been called the "most influential ...

, Los Angeles. Though not specifically homo-erotic the free use of genital representation on both his male and female figures was an obstacle many galleries are shied away from. In 2007, Filippo's work was shown by Sex Art Gallery in Amsterdam, 2010 at Parlor Gallery in Asbury Park, 2012 12 Inches of Sin at the Sin City Gallery in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, 2014 12 Inches of Sin-Le Salon Des Refuses Du Peche at the Sin City Gallery in Las Vegas, 2015 12 Inches of Sin-Le Salon Des Refuses Du Peche at the Sin City Gallery in Las Vegas and 2016 12 Inches of Sin-Immersive at the Sin City Gallery in Las Vegas, 2017

12 Inches of Sin VI 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

at the Sin City Gallery in Las Vegas, 2018 12 Inches of Sin VII at the Sin City Gallery in Las Vegas. In addition to fine art Nicola Filippo began in 2010 to explore advertising work for firms such as Serino Coyne. Nicola Filippo has gifted art work to the Tom of Finland Foundation and Palm Springs Museum of Art; his work is also in numerous private collections. Most notable is the Hieghet and Wilson collection of San Francisco. Early supporters and patrons of Nicola Filippo's art include his spouse Producer and Screenwriter

Gerald Ayres Gerald Ayres (February 3, 1936 – April 7, 2018) was an American film studio executive, producer and screenwriter. He is known for his work as producer of ''The Last Detail'' (1973) starring Jack Nicholson and as writer of ''Rich and Famous'' ( ...

(m.2013), art historian

Hunter Drohojowska-Philp Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn (anatomy) ...

, curator

Lisa Lyons Lisa Posthumus Lyons (born June 12, 1980) is an American politician from Alto, Michigan, and served three terms as a Republican member of the Michigan House of Representatives from District 86 (portions of Ionia and Kent Counties) from 2011 - 20 ...

and film maker

Agnès Varda Agnès Varda (; born Arlette Varda; 30 May 1928 – 29 March 2019) was a Belgian-born French film director, screenwriter, photographer, and artist. Her pioneering work was central to the development of the widely influential French New Wave film ...

Collage

Filippo's most notable collage elements are nude figures of men and women, generally vintage, with playful text and bits of Americana found or acquired. Multiple layered and strongly colored these small collages radiate color and flow with gesture. The early works consisted of printed transparencies laid over painted cardboard with collage underneath and over. Later works consist entirely of assorted paper.

Notes

References

# Henkel, Dr. Laura (2013). Sin City Gallery's 12 Inches of Sin: So Much Art You Can Barely Fit It All In (Volume 1). Sin City Gallery, an imprint of Dymaxicon. pp. 38–39. . # Henkel, Dr. Laura (2014). Sin City Gallery's 12 Inches of Sin: So Much Art You Can Barely Fit It All In (Volume 3). Sin City Gallery, an imprint of Dymaxicon. pp. 29–30. . # Henkel, Dr. Laura (2015). Sin City Gallery's 12 Inches of Sin: So Much Art You Can Barely Fit It All In (Volume 4). Sin City Gallery, an imprint of Dymaxicon. pp. 74–75. . # Henkel, Dr. Laura (2016). Sin City Gallery's 12 Inches of Sin Art for the Modern Provocateur (Volume 5). Sin City Gallery, publisher 12 of Sin LLC. pp. 26–26. . # https://www.reviewjournal.com/entertainment/arts-culture/12-inches-of-sin-art-competition-grows-from-modest-beginnings/

External links

* http://www.12ofsin.com/ * http://www.tomoffinlandfoundation.org/foundation/EAW-LA/2008/ArtistImages/Default.htm * https://web.archive.org/web/20110304160411/http://www.parlor-gallery.com/?page_id=1626 * http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/dealers_galleries/Gallery/Sexy+Art+Gallery/20154.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Filippo, Nicola American pop artists American collage artists Women collage artists Dada 1957 births Living people Artists from Peoria, Illinois California College of the Arts alumni