22 March 2022 (New Orleans, LA) JONATHAN FERRARA GALLERY is proud to present the fourth solo exhibition at the gallery of New York-based artist Paul Villinski entitled Fabula. In this collection of eight unique sculptures and installations, we are brought into Villinski’s world of butterflies, birds, and found objects. A pilot of sailplanes, paragliders and single-engine airplanes, metaphors of flight and soaring often appear in his work. With a lifelong concern for environmental issues, his work frequently re- purposes discarded materials, effecting surprising and poetic transformations.

The exhibition will be on view from 22 March to 28 May 2022, with an opening reception coinciding with the Arts District of New Orleans’ (ADNO) First Saturday Gallery Openings from 5-8 PM on 2 April. There will also be a closing reception from 5-8 PM on 7 May in conjunction with the annual event Jammin’ On Julia which brings thousands of people to the Art District for an unofficial post- Jazz Fest block party.

For more information, press or sales inquiries please contact Partner and Gallery Director Matthew Weldon Showman at 504.343.6827 or matthew@jonathanferraragallery.com. Please join the conversation with JFG on Facebook (@JonathanFerraraGallery), Twitter (@JFerraraGallery), and Instagram (@JonathanFerraraGallery) via the hashtags: #PaulVillinski #Fabula #JonathanFerraraGallery, and #ArtsDistrictNewOrleans.

[New York, NY ::: b. 1960 - York, ME]

Paul Villinski has created studio and large-scale artworks for more than three decades. Villinski was born in York, Maine, USA, in 1960, son of an Air Force navigator. A scenic route through the educational system included stops at Phillips Exeter Academy and the Massachusetts College of Art, and a BFA with honors from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, in 1984. He lives with his partner, painter Amy Park, and their son, Lark, in New York City and the Catskills.

Notable exhibitions include “This Present Moment: Crafting a Better Future,” the 50th Anniversary exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC; a mid-career survey, "Paul Villinski: Farther," at the Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA; "Paris-London: Music Connections," at the Museum of Immigration, Paris, FR;  a solo exhibition, "Burst," at the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX; “Passage: A Special Project,” at the Blanton Museum, Austin, TX; “Material Transformations,” at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, Montgomery, AL and Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, FL; “Making Mends,” at the Bellevue Museum of Arts, Bellevue, WA; “Second Lives: Re-purposing the Ordinary,” at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY; and “Prospect.1,” an international Biennial in New Orleans, LA. Villinski's “Emergency Response Studio,” a FEMA trailer redesigned and rebuilt into a solar-and wind-powered mobile artist’s studio, was the subject of a solo exhibition at Rice University Art Gallery, Houston, TX; the exhibition also travelled to Ballroom Marfa, in Marfa, TX; Wesleyan University’s Zilkha Gallery, Middletown, CT; and was featured in the New Museum’s “Festival of Ideas for the New City”, in New York, NY.

Villinski’s work is widely collected, including major public works created by commission. In 2015 he installed “Skycycles,” three full-scale “flying bicycles” suspended overhead at “Ocean Breeze,” an NYC Parks and Recreation Track and Field facility, through the New York City Percent for Art Program. "Dream Desk" was completed in 2014 as part of the City of New Haven Percent for Art Program. Suspended over the entranceway of the East Rock Magnet School, the "flying school desk" features hand-written statements by hundreds of the school's students describing their dreams and aspirations. "Air Chair," a winged wheelchair, is part of Miami International Airport's permanent collection, and hangs in the American Airlines terminal. "Gather," an installation of hundreds of kinetic, realistically crafted, aluminum butterflies, was commissioned for the main atrium lobby of the University of Michigan Mott Children’s and Von Voitlander Women’s Hospital, Ann Arbor, MI. In 2015, a large, site-specific, butterfly installation called "Encircle" was completed for the main entrance lobby of the White Plains Hospital, in Westchester, New York.

Other public collections include the Smithsonian American Art Museum Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC; Museum of Arts and Design, NY; New Orleans Museum of Art, LA; National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson Hole, WY; National Soaring Museum, Elmira, NY; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX; Louisiana Children’s Museum, New Orleans, LA; Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, FL; Ogunquit  Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME; Tulane University, New Orleans, LA; and Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR. Corporate collections include Fidelity Investments; Microsoft; Progressive Insurance; ADP; McCann Erickson International; New York Life; Ritz-Carlton; Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines; Holland  America Line; 21C  Museum Hotel, Louisville, KY; The Alexander Hotel, Indianapolis, IN; Hotel Van Zandt, Austin, TX; Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH; Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, Norfolk, VA, and many others.

His work has frequently been reviewed in periodicals including ARTnews; Artforum; Art in America; Sculpture; Interior Design; Design Bureau; New York Magazine; ID; The New York Times; Wall Street Journal; Los Angeles Times; Washington Post; Houston Chronicle; International Herald Tribune; Village Voice; Seattle Times; New Haven Register; Toronto Star; Times-Picayune and many others.

Villinski’s work is featured on a 2020 United Nations Postal Service stamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. He has been a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and has been an Artist-in-Residence at the Serenbe Institute, GA; Socrates Sculpture Park, NY; the Millay Colony, NY; the Ucross Foundation, WY; the Djerassi Foundation, CA; and the Villa Montalvo Arts Center, CA. He has lectured frequently in university and museum settings. He is represented in New York by Morgan Lehman Gallery; in New Orleans by Jonathan Ferrara Gallery; in Jackson Hole, Wyoming by Tayloe Piggot Gallery; and in Palm Desert, California, by Austin Art Projects. In 2019, Vivant Books published and extensive monograph documenting three decades of the artist’s work.

An avid pilot of gliders and single-engine airplanes, metaphors of flight and soaring often appear in his work. With a lifelong concern for environmental issues, his work frequently re-purposes discarded materials, effecting surprising and poetic transformations.