Gina Telcocci

The Roll Up Project is pleased to present sculptures by Gina Telcocci. Telcocci makes abstract sculptures that reflect on the passage of time, natural forms and aspects of movement.

Telcocci works primarily with found and foraged materials. Over the course of her career, she has utilized objects like seed pods, acorns, and branches, which are combined with paper, reed, wax, wire, plaster, and other materials to form objects that feel familiar, but otherworldly.

Three sculptures comprise the Fabricating Futures installation in the Harrison Street window: Power of Flower (2019), A Bright Idea (2019) and Coney (2019). Power of Flower is a large vessel composed of reed and rag paper, and its wide funnel shape exemplifies Telcocci’s skill in basketweaving. The gridded lines of the reed create a distinctive pattern and texture against the luminous paper skin, drawing the eye into a disappearing center. The shape is reminiscent of phonograph horns, black holes, tornados, or flowers in full bloom. The viewer may see the shape as expanding out, or contracting in. The center of A Bright Idea is stretched and expanded, and the surface is almost translucent. At its tapering ends, the form is solid and dark. Coney is completely opaque, and its reed structure is painted a deep red to contrast the mottled interior of the funnel shape.

Involuntary Gestures fills the windows on Third Street. Several small-scale sculptures ranging from long, slender pods to plump orbs to funnels or shuttlecocks are suspended throughout the space. Collectively, they underscore the formal concepts of sculpture: structure, form, line, color, volume, and texture. With even the slightest draft, they sway and turn, adding the dynamic element of movement. As suggested by the installation title, they celebrate the improvisations and repeated gestures that are a part of studio work. The shapes are a result of an iterative process of refining, looking, thinking, and repeating the process.

Several works feature mixed media surfaces which are applied over the woven structures and then partially sanded away. They have the soft, worn feeling of a beloved but threadbare toy, or something abandoned outdoors and left to the elements. The skeletal underpinnings are revealed, creating interesting patterns along the surface.

Telcocci’s sculptures are open to interpretation, and allow viewers not to ascribe any single meaning onto them. Instead, they encourage viewers to consider all of the fantastic forms, textures, and patterns that exist in everyday life.

Learn more about her work at ginatelcocci.com.

About the artist

Gina Telcocci is a sculptor and installation artist devoted to the power of the hand-made object. Raised the child of an organic gardener and a jazz musician, Telcocci grew to revere nature and natural processes, and to see, in improvisation, the synthesis of math and beauty as an adaptive strategy. Working with wire, wood, and other organic and found materials, she uses a variety of assemblage, traditional crafts, and weaving techniques. Her sculptures are mostly abstract, with an emphasis on structure and form, but with textural and layered complexity.

Telcocci has received numerous grants and awards, including from the from Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, Pollock/Krasner Foundation, and the City of Oakland. Public commissions include Potrero Hill Library, San Francisco, CA; Albany Memorial Park, Albany, CA; Walnut Creek Library,Walnut Creek, CA; and UNM/Los Alamos, Los Alamos, NM. Her work has been exhibited across the U.S., Mexico, and South Korea. Most recently, Telcocci’s sculpture was included in the de Young Open at the de Young Museum, San Francisco (2020). And her collaborative work with art group Stone Soup Project was featured in “Collaborations” at Gulf Coast State College, Panama City, FL (Spring 2021).

Telcocci currently lives and works in Oakland, CA, and she spends time as often as possible on her rural Northern New Mexico property where she grows and harvests willow.