Angiola Churchill (b. 1922, New York) was a former Head of the Art Department at New York University. She was the founder of the New York University Master of Art for Studio Art program in Venice, Italy. She has had 60 solo shows in America and elsewhere in such prestigious spaces as the Museo di Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy; Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara, Italy; Palazzo Reale, Naples, Italy; Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, Italy; Neuberger Museum of Art, NY; In addition she has participated in numerous group shows, biennials and art fairs. She is often associated with monumental installations executed on paper. She won A Golden Lion Award from Venice mayor in 2006.
The works presented here traverse more than half of the 20th century, from shortly before the Second World War to the present. They are influenced both by her personal history – displacement by immigration, growing up in an urban environment, her family’s social and economic status, her education – and also by the world events she have lived through – the Depression of the 1930s, the scarring effects of World War II and its aftermath, McCarthyism, the Cold War, the Korean and Vietnam wars, the cultural shifts of the 1960s and ‘70s, and the affluent period of the 1980s and ‘90s.
In the 40s, she was a figurative painter influenced by Cubism, more synthetic than analytical in orientation. Her understanding of color and planar relationships, her perceptual and tactile regard for space, begin here. Her focus and subject matter was primarily related to urban figures, positioned in the streets among buildings, and defined by geometric lines and color planes. By the early 50s, her work was moving more toward the abstract, toward non-objective planes and shapes, yet still within a synthetic Cubist modality. In the late 50s she returns to the figurative group again, and a relinquishing of her explicit Cubist vocabulary in favor of Expressionism. By the 60s – that magical decade of transformation in American culture – Churchill was moving into bolder colors and circular shapes, wide-open eyes and womb-like enclosures, floral pods, and fertile seeds. This continued into the 1970s with a greater emphasis on minimal structure. By the end of the 70s, she was clearly into the color white – the metaphorical purity – that would eventually take her to the paper works of the 90s and 20th into the installations for which she has become recently known.
She is often associated with monumental paper installations, but her work has evolved in years of 2010 - 2018 to include large collage drawings composed of several to several thousand Post-it notes. Two themes pervade her work throughout her career: imagery evoking eyes, denoting the eye problems that have plagued her and her ancestors; and the elaborate gardens that are integral to the Milanese landscape in which she was raised. These themes remain constant as her fascination with Post-it notes grows and informs her interpretation of art media.
She uses her recent works to share with the viewer an interest in exploring relationships between small elements that create a larger, cohesive whole. This interest ties back, as always, to her love of gardens: large and elaborate environments created from many small, carefully curated flora and fauna. She explains, “I could go on forever making things in an arrangement, which is again a gardener arrangement.” Her shift of medium is also an adjustment to her recent discovery of these sticky notes. As Churchill progresses in age, she considers Post-it notes a “gift” by eliminating the physical stress of constructing large installations while allowing her to continue as the "gardener" she has always been.
Her work in the 2016s is far more colorful than her prior work. Her choice is encouraged by changes in her vision; as her eyesight deteriorates, the color red stands out to her even as other colors begin to fade. She has broken from her previous monochrome installations and desaturated paintings while continuing to acknowledge the theme of the eye.
Though her themes remain constant, her media acknowledge her circumstances: diminishing eyesight, shifting resources, and an ever-changing, advancing world.
2022 “Installations: Lybranth ”, Wook + Lattuada Gallery, New York
2018 “Selected Works from the 80s & 90s”, Wook + Lattuada Gallery, New York, NY
2016 “My World, My Art”, Holland Tunnel Gallery, Williamsburg, NY
2010 “Variations in a Square”, Wook + Lattuada Gallery, New York, NY
2006 “Thoughts in Transition” Crecloo Art Gallery (Wook + Lattuada Gallery), New York, NY
2006 Arti Visive, Franco Ricciardi Gallery, Naples, Italy
2006 Casa Ludovico, Ariosto, Ferrara, Italy
2006 Palazzo Reale, Naples, Italy
2005 “A Garden by the Sea”, Kingsborough College, Brooklyn, NY
2004 Drawing, painting, papers, Museo del Comune di Alassio, Alassio, Italy
2004 “Knots to Buds, Paradise Revised”, Tenri Cultural Institute Gallery, New York, NY
2004 “Symbolic Images”, Crecloo Art Gallery (Wook + Lattuada Gallery), Jenkintown, PA
2003 “Retrospective”, Lattuada Studio, Milan, Italy
2003 “Beyond The Garden” installation, Museo di Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy
2002 “Bodily Garden”, Zuni Arte Contemporanea, Ferrara, Italy
2001 “Testigos / Witnesses” 4 installations, Museo De Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo, San José, Costa Rica
2000 3 Installations and 5 paintings, Kepco Plaza Gallery, Seoul, Korea
1999 3 Installations and 7 paintings, Lattuada Studio, Milan, Italy
1999 3 Installations and drawings, Janatl Gallery, Greenwich, Connecticut
1998 “The Eye of ‘I’”, Myungsook Lee Gallery, New York, NY
1997 Paper/white/light, Myungsook Lee Gallery, New York, NY
1996 6 Works on paper, Coastal Carolina University, South Carolina
1996 Installation, Myungsook Lee Gallery, New York, NY
1996 20 Paintings, Swan Gallery, New York, NY
1996 25 Paintings, Casa Italiana Zerrilli-Marimo, New York, NY
1994 Installation, Arte Carta, Ferrara, Italy
1992 35 Papers, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara, Italy
1986 40 Pieces installation, Museo S. María, Génova, Italy
1985 40 Pieces installation, Palazzo Ducale, Mantova, Italy
1984 30 Papers, Galleria Arte Centro, Miláno, Italy
1983 150 Papers, Galleria Floriana, Locarno, Switzerland
1981 20 Papers, Galleria d’Arte Tommaseo, Trieste, Italy
1980 60 Paintings, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara, Italy
1979 30 Papers, Galleria IL Capricorno, Venice, Italy
1979 50 Papers, Centro d’Arte, Cortina, Italy
1978 10 Paintings, Montclair State Teachers College, Montclair, NJ
1978 40 Papers, 20 Washington Square East Gallery, New York, NY
1977 70 Paintings, New York Institute of Technology, New York, NY
1974 NYU Faculty Show, Loeb Students Center, New York, NY
1973 125 Paintings, Amarillo Art Center, Amarillo, Texas
1973 50 Paintings, County College of Morris, Randolph, NJ
1973 NYU Faculty Show, Loeb Students Center, New York, NY
1972 58 Paintings, Molloy College, Rockville Center, NY
1972 52 Paintings and collages, Fairlawn Public Library, Fairlawn, NJ
1967 62 Paintings, Macy Gallery at Columbia University Teachers College, New York, NY
1965 62 Paintings, Jersey City State College, Jersey City, NJ
1963 70 Paintings, Macy Gallery at Columbia University Teachers College, New York, NY
1961 NYU Faculty Show, Loeb Students Center, New York, NY
1961 Jersey City State College, Jersey City, NJ
1960 Grand Rapids Art Gallery, Grand Rapid, MI
1960 New York State Museum, Albany, NY
1959 James Gallery, New York, NY
1958 Long Island University at Brooklyn Campus, Brooklyn, NY
1953 NYU Faculty Show, Loeb Students Center, New York, NY
2009 Incheon International Women Artists Biennale, Incheon, Korea
2004 Concreta Magia-La Casa di Ceramica, Mostra Triennale di Ceramica
2004 “Ceramica al Centro”, Museo Nazionale Atestino, Este (Pd), Italy
2004 Biennale Lodz International Contemporary Museum, Poland
2004 Biennale Donna Museo Palazzo Bonacossi, Ferrara, Italy
2000 Biennale Internationale de Arte En El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2017 “Angiola Churchill & Lucia Pescador”, Wook + Lattuada Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2017 “Urban Landscape”, Bendheim Gallery, New York, NY
2016 “Summer Afternoon”, Wook + Flavio Gallery, Busan, Korea
2007 “Camera Con Vista”, Lattuada Studio, Milan, Italy
2007 “Black n White”, Wook + Lattuada Gallery, New York, NY
2006 “Blast”, Holland Tunnel, Williamsburg, New York, NY
2006 “Winter Festival”, Wave Hill, New York, NY
2006 2X13 Gallery, New York, NY
2005 “Horse Feathers Etc.”, Tenri Cultural Institute Gallery, New York, NY
2005 “50+”, The Holland Tunnel Gallery Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
2004 Macy Gallery at Columbia University, New York, NY
2000 Space World Gallery, New York, NY
2000 Segye Gallery, New York, NY
1999 The Work Space New York, N.Y.
1998 Abstract Painting, Coastal Carolina University, SC
1998 Myungsook Lee Gallery, New York, NY
1997 Installation, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY
1997 606 Gallery, New York, NY
1994 Klarfeld-Perry Gallery, New York
1992 Macy Gallery at Columbia University Teachers College, New York, NY
1990 Galleria del Cavallino, Venice, Italy
1981 Installation, Federal Plaza, NY
1976 The Barn Greenwich, CT
1972 “Italian-American ”, Loeb Students Center at NYU, New York, NY
2009 “Design Day”, 7W Gallery, New York, NY
2008-9 “Aligning with Beauty”, Varley Art Gallery of Markham, Canada
2008 “Ceramic Magnifica!”, Westchester Italian Cultural Gallery, New York, NY
2008 Headbone Gallery, Toronto, Canada
2008 “Chindiserie and Other Follies”, Hunter College, New York, NY
2006 “Oracles”, Paros, Greece
2006 “Black And White”, Holland Tunnel Gallery, Williamsburg, NY
2005 Kean University, New Jersey, NY
2005 “New York Women”, Indiana University
2004 “Enchantment at The Edge of The Wood” a handmade garden installation, Wave Hill, Bronx, NY
2003 Chelsea Art Museum, New York, NY
2003 Berliner Kunst Project, Germany
2003 New York Arts Gallery, New York, NY
2002 Berliner Kent Project, Germany
2002 Chelsea Studio Gallery, New York University, New York, NY
1999 The Work Space, New York, NY
1999 Macy Gallery, Columbia University Teachers College, New York, NY
1997 “The Eye of ‘I’”, paintings and installations, Myung Sook Lee Gallery, New York, NY
1997 Paper installations, Special Projects Gallery, New York, NY
1997 Paintings, 80 Washington Square East Gallery, New York, NY
1995 Paintings, Apex Gallery, New York, NY
1994 Paper installations, Chiesa di S. Francesco, Bolsena, Italy
1994 Paper installations, Studio Bocchi, Roma, Italy
1994 Paper installations, Badia Vecchia, Taormina, Italy
1991 Palazzo Querini Stampalia, Venice, Italy
1982 Palazzo Querini Stampalia, Venice, Italy
1984 Montclair Art Gallery, New Jersey
1982 Musée d' Art de la Ville de Paris, Paris France
1982 Galleria Tommaseo, Trieste, Italy
1976-81 Grassi Palace, Venice, Italy
1975-80 80 Washington Square East Gallery, New York, NY
1976 Bronx Museum of Art, New York, NY
1978 Lever House, New York, NY
1975 Westbeth Galleries, New York, NY
2007 “Camera Con Vista”, Lattuada Studio, Milan, Italy
2006 Casa Ludovico, Ariosto, Ferrara, Italy
2006 Palazzo Reale, Naples, Italy
2006 Drawings, Collages, Installations, Crecloo Art Gallery (Wook + Lattuada Gallery), New York, NY
2004 Installations, Tenri Cultural Institute Gallery, New York, NY
2004 Installations, drawings, paintings, Crecloo Art Gallery (Wook + Lattuada Gallery), Philadelphia
2003 Retrospective Show, Lattuada Studio Milan, Italy
2003 Installations, Museo Fortuny Venice Italy
2001 4 Installations, Museo De Arte Diseño Contemporáneo, Costa Rica
2000 3 Installations, 5 paintings, Kepco Plaza Gallery, Seoul, Korea
1999 3 Installations 7 paintings, Lattuada Studio, Milan, Italy
1998 3 Installations, 12 paintings and collages, Myungsook Lee Gallery, New York, NY
1997 Paper/White/Light, Myungsook Lee Gallery, New York, NY
1996 Installations, Myungsook Lee Gallery, New York, NY
1996 20 Paintings, Swan Gallery, New York, NY
1992 35 Papers, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara, Italy
1984 30 Papers, Galleria Arte Centro, Milano, Italy
1983 150 Papers, Galleria Floriana, Locarno, Switzerland
1980 Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara, Italy
2006 Wave Hill, “Celebrate Winter Through Nature”, Bronx, NY
2005 “Horse Feathers Etc.”, Tenri Cultural Institute Gallery, New York, NY
2005 “50+” Holland Tunnel Gallery, New York, NY
2004 “Biennale Donna” Museo Palazzo Bonacossi, Ferrara, Italy
2004 Mvseo Nazlonale atestino, Cita’ Di Este, Italy
2004 “Enchantment at The Edge of The Wood”, Wave Hill, New York, NY
Ed.D Columbia University, Teachers College, New York, NY
M.A. Columbia University, Teachers College, New York, NY
B.A. Columbia University, Teachers College, New York, NY
B.F.A. Temple University, Tyler School of Fine Arts, PA
Cooper Union, New York, NY
High School of Music and Art (LaGuardia Art & Performing High School), New York, NY
Wallace Harrison Studio, New York, NY
1973 The Kearsarge Art Center of the Institute of Modern Art, an Affiliate of The Museum of Modern Art
(Summer Program under the direction of Victor D’Amico, A director of The Department of
Education of MoMA)
1970-71 Alaska Methodist University intercession, Anchorage, AK
1959 People’s Art Center at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (Part Time)
1956-57 Bank Street College (Part Time), New York, NY
1947-58 Ethical Culture Schools (Director at Art Department), New York, NY
1944-45 Manhattanville College, Bronx, NY
New York University:
1975-2005 Director of the M.A. Studio Art Program in Venice, Italy
1999 Professor Emeritus
1976-1988 Head of the Department of Art and Art Education
1968 Full Time Professor
1967-68 Associate Professor
1968 Coordinator of Student Teaching (Art Education Department)
1966 Administrative Assistant to the Chairperson
1960-66 Assistant Professor
1958-60 Teaching Fellow
Columbia University:
1988-2004 Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, Teachers College, New York, NY
1971 “Teachers Guide to Art for Pre- Adolescents, McGraw-Hill Publishing Company
1970 “Art for Pre-Adolescents, Mc Green-Hill Publishing Company
“Exhibition Children Do Themselves” School Arts (Co-author)
“Art Bulletin” New York: The Ethical Culture School (Chairperson of Committee)
1956 “The Art Program at the Midtown Ethical Cultural School”, Seminar on
Elementary and Secondary Schools, New York: New York University
2018 Angiola Churchill: 1940-2018 Edition 1, published by Wook + Lattuada Gallery, NYC
2006 “Bevilacqua La Masa”, Presentation of Her Installations, Venice, Italy
2004 “Europa e America a palazzo Bonacossi”, Ferrara il Resto del Carlino, Domenica 4 April
2003 “Le Cose Che Contano”, “ Musei Civici Veneziani”, Venice, Palazzo Fortuny, April
“Enzo Di Martino”, “Oltre il giardino, nei labirinti emotivi”, Il Gazzettino, Venice, Italy, April
“Debra Weinstein”, “Angiola Churchill Awarded Venice Golden Lion”,
The Steinhardt School of Education Newsletter, New York University, New York, December
“Gloria Vallese”, “Effimere, tragiche”. Maestri, Arte Magazine, Venice, Italy
“Valentine Bezzi”, “Viaggio nel bosco di carta di Angiola Churchill”, La Pia Magazine, Venice, Italy
“Musei Civici Veneziani”, “Angiola Churchill: Beyond the Garden”, Musei Civici Veneziani, Venice, Italy
“Enrico Gusella”, “A Venezia la carta setata e leggera dell’ Americana Angiola Churchill”,
Il Sole Nord Est Magazine, Venice, Italy, March
“Giorgia Gallion”, “La Churchill "Oltre il giardino: mostra di carta, spazio e tempo”,
Lego Magazine, Venice, Italy, April
“Roberta De Rossi”, “L’assessore: Sponser si` ma senza invertire i ruoli”,
La nuova Venezia Magazine, Venice, Italy, April
“Marta Artico”, “Il mondo di carta di Angiola Churchill”,
Gente Veneta Magazine, Venice, Palazzo Fortuny, April
“Marco De Michelis”, “Se l’arte e` inquinata dagli sponsor ecco Botero, Colbert, Elton John”,
La Nuova Venezia, Venice, Italy, April
“Fausto Lorenzi”, “Della cacciata dall’Eden alla ricerca del Paradiso”,
Il Giornale Di Brescia, Venice, Italy, April
“Riccardo Bon”, “Things that Matter”, Venice Magazine, Venice, Italy, April
“Dana Zeman”, “Angiola Churchill the Palazzo Fortuny, Venice”, NY Magazine, New York, NY
“Lola Bonora”, “Le architetture effimere di Angiola Churchill”, Art Studio Magazine, Venice, Italy
2001 “Witnesses/Testigos” Exhibition Catalog, MADC Costa Rica
Divas Bringsas, Tamara. Viva, San Jose Costa Rica
Ribot-Perez, Tahituey. “ Paper, Silence, Light.” Ancora
Ponchner, Debbie. “Angiola, Papal, Tigera.”
Schunacher, Camila. “El Público De La Publicidad.” La Nation
Angiola Churchill, Monography, Esso Gallery and Books, Issue 8, Feb Corrales-Arias. La Frontera
2000 Kepco Plaza Gallery, Seoul Korea, Exhibition Catalog
“Explorations” The Segye Times, Long Island City, NY
“Millennium Auction” Exhibition Catalog, April 2001, The Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY
1999 Farina, Franco. “The Arrogant Trickster” Exhibition Catalog, Lattuada Studio, Milan, Italy
Morgan, Robert. “Omniscient Eyes: Selected Works by Angiola Churchill.” Essay in Exhibition
Catalog, Lattuada Studio, Milan, Italy
1998 “Le Architettura Effimere Di Angiola Churchill.”
Titolo Rivista Scientifica Culturale D’Arte Contemporanea, Spring
“Angiola Churchill.” Teachers College Columbia University Newsletter, Spring Ed
Morgan, Mike. “Another Year, Another Vivace.” The Museum News, Myrtle Beach
Graves, Kathleen. “Garden’s Light: A Handmade Garden by Angiola Churchill.” (Videotape, 15 Min)
“Art Miami International Modern and Contemporary Art” Exhibition Catalog
“Diverse Group-One Direction.” Catalog, Apex Art New York
1997 Taylor, Spaulding. “Angiola Churchill Exhibition 1997”, The Neuberger Museum, (Video-tape, 10 Min)
Collishan, Judy. “Paper Spaces” Exhibition Catalog, The Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY
Pozzi, Lucio. “La Folina Ragionevole Di Labirinto Di Carta” Il Giornale Dell Arte, Sept. 1997, p.84
“Neuberger Museum at SUNY.” Gallery Guide, Summer 1997, p.110
“Angiola Churchill,” Interface New York University, Feb 1997
“St. John, Catherline. “ Angiola Churchill’s Magnificent Well-Kept Garden.”
Correspondence to Judy Collishan, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs, The Neuberger Museum
1996 Morgan, Robert. “Angiola Churchill 1985-1995.” Exhibition Catalog, Gallery Swan, New York
“Angiola Churchill’s Paintings.” Exhibition Catalog, Coastal Carolina University, Conway, Sc
1994 Morgan, Robert. “Symbolic Surface.” Exhibition Catalog, Krefel-Perry Gallery, New York
“Carte.” Fiera Itinerante Di Opere in Carta, Ferrara, Italy, Oct. 1994, p.23
Biasi, Vittoria. “Stati Di Bianco.” Exhibition Catalog. Bologna, Roma and Taormina, Italy
1986-97 Gazzano Maria, Mark. “Video Art Festival.” New Media Work, Immi/prova
1985 Dorfles Guillo and Vittirio Fagone. “Angiola Churchill.” Exhibition Catalog,
Comune Di Mantova, Mantova, Italy
1984 Galleria Arte Centro, Exhibition Catalog, Milano, Italy
Battcock, Gregory, Et. Al. “Paper Dreams.” Sala Polivalente, Ferrara, Italy
1983 “White Papers” Exhibition Catalog, Galleria Flaviana Lucerne, Switzerland
1980 Exhibition Catalog, Palazzo Die Diamanti, Ferrara, Italy
2003 Venice Golden Lion: awarded by the mayor of Venice
Katota Tooth, Venice, Italy
Nelli Ryster, Switzerland
Ana Arani, Venice, Italy
Mariya Christidis, New York, NY
Daisy Alden, New York, NY
Nancy Blickman, Pearl River
Major Edward Camporini, Washington, DC
Columbia University, New York, NY
Luigi and Frederica Marangoni, Venice, Italy
Guido and Laura Benzoni, Venice, Italy
Lola Botona; Farrara, Italy
Franco Farina Farrara, Italy
Fiorella La Lumia, Milan, Italy
Pia Melani, Monza, Italy
Anna Maria Orsini Camerata, Venice, Italy
Giovanni Rizzoli, Venice, Italy
Giorgio Camerino, Venice, Italy
Hankook Bone-China (HKC-USA, INC.), Kevin Lee, New York, NY
Oogie Art, Wook Choi, New York, NY
Royal Sovereign, T.K.Lim, New Jersey
Fabiana Um, New York, NY
Yunho Cho, New Jersey
Helen Kim, New Jersey
Eve Silver, New York, NY
Martino and Paula Gollinelli, Venice, Italy
Carol Kay, New York, NY
Joan Min, New Jersey
Youngmin Choi, Seoul, Korea
Michela Bondardo, New York, Milan, Italy
Hannah Kim, New York, NY
Jinkyung Lee, New Jersey
Jinyoung Lee, Seoul, Korea
Jena Usen, New York, NY
Sukkyu Han, Seoul, Korea
Gen Susan, New York, NY
Minyoung Kang, Busan, Korea
Updated Date: July 2022