Biography:

Marc Adornato (1977 - not dead yet)

 

Adornato is a first-generation Canadian, born in Montreal, Quebec, to Italian/French immigrants. He spent much of his childhood in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia before his family settled in Ottawa, Canada. In 2001, he received a degree in Fine Arts from NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He has since exhibited in the Canadian War Museum, the National Art Gallery of Canada, the Bank of Canada's Currency Museum, and others across the country. He is currently represented by the Ottawa Art Gallery, but because most people don't go to Art Galleries anymore, he also exhibits in 'artist-friendly alternative spaces' . [view exhibition history]

"The target audience for my artwork is the general public.
The general public do not frequent art galleries.
So, to only show in art galleries would be ridiculous."

Over the past decade, Adornato has been reflecting, appropriating, reconfiguring, and critiquing the world around him through video mashups, sculpture, 2D work, performance, and sound. His artistic philosophies broadly align with Neo-Dadaism, Post-postmodernism, and Neo-metamodern-post-pop-futurism.

In 2002-2009, while suffering from 'future shock', Marc produced a series of artworks entitled "Anarchos Apokalypsis" where he burned, shredded and smashed shit to pieces - and hung it in museums and galleries.

This 'assemblage/remix' style continues to be prevalent in Adornato’s current sculptural work. His latest creations are a historical-postmodern fusion comprised of antiquated objects from the past century, accented with modern technology such as LED lights, MP3 players, and video screens. This series takes an anthropological approach, reflecting past and present art movements, modern critical theory, and issues of our era.

"In order to understand where we're going and truly appreciate how far we've come, we must always be looking back at where we've been."

Adornato hunts and gathers his materials from estate sales, online classifieds, flea markets, auctions, garbage days, and donations. Materials include antique electronics (radios, cameras, gramophones, telephones, televisions, microphones, and vacuum tubes), WW2 era gas masks, antlers, furs, vintage toys, reclaimed wood, often set in antique ornate gilded frames.

He creates his original artwork at his 1400 sqft studio, steps away from Gatineau Park, near Ottawa.

To read past stories and interviews of Adornato's endeavors visit the 'Press' section.

Contact Marc Adornato: info@adornato.com

WATCH THIS: Marc recently gave a talk at the Ottawa chapter of Pecha Kucha (similar to TEDx talks) where he discussed his work over the last decade.

 

 

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Artist Statement:

This recent body of artwork is an exploration of Canada’s evolving identity, and a juxtaposition of the old and the new. Although the visual aesthetic of my creations are rooted in antiquated 'Canadiana' motifs, the subject matter and themes that influence the artwork are often inspired by Canadian and global contemporary, economic, and sociopolitical issues. The pieces become cultural allegories and epigrams that reflect my interpretation of our rapidly evolving civilization.

The titles of the works, such as Trans-Canadian Pipeline, iBOMB, Progress Derailed, and Hunting Dissent directly refer to contemporary hot-button issues facing Canada, the globe, and our collective human experience.

The creation process started about 3 years ago when I began hunting and gathering objects throughout the National Capital region.
The goal? To collect anything that was made pre-1960: pre-barcode, pre-press-wood, pre-made-in-China. It was almost an archeological experiment - to seek out old obsolete remnants of the 20th century - and reconfigure them into messages for the people of the future.

Equipped with my little Toyota Echo, bungee cords, and a pocket full of my own cash (not grants), I spent countless hours, and drove thousands of kilometers exploring garage sales, flea markets, estate sales, touring older neighborhoods on garbage days, and even the occasional barn-spelunk to find remnants of Canada’s consumer past.

I was picking up everything from old broken wood toboggans, rusty door knobs, ornate picture frames, dusty typewriters, WW2 gas masks and corrosive chemical containers, to discarded 1930s radios, late 1800s farm equipment, antlers, pelts, and old toy trains. I was salvaging century-old pieces of a puzzle that would soon recongeal into my latest and largest body of artwork to date.

View the gallery.

 

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