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.

PURCHASE VILLINSKI’S MONOGRAPH HERE

CURRICULUM VITAE

Education

1984 BFA, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, NY

1982 Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA

1974-76 Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH

Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions

2022 Fabula, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, LA

2021 Homeward, KW Contemporary Art, Kennebunkport, ME

2020 Volta Art Fair, New York, NY, exhibited by Jonathan Ferrara Gallery

2019 Now, Morgan Lehman Gallery, NY

Tayloe Piggot Gallery, NY

Jackson Hole Contemporary Art Fair, Jackson Hole, WY, exhibited by Tayloe Piggott Gallery,

2018 Flower Bomber, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA

2018 Reprise, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, LA

2017 Farther, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA

2016 Beyond, Tayloe Piggott Gallery, Jackson Hole, WY

2015 Departure, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, LA

Lift, Austin Art Projects, Palm Desert, CA

2014 Paradigm, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY (catalog)

Paul Villinski: Burst, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX

2012 Alight, Tayloe Piggott Gallery, Jackson Hole, WY

Passage (Special Installation) The Blanton Museum, University of Texas, Austin

2011 Passage, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY (catalog)

2010 Glidepath, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, LA

2009 Emergency Response Studio, Rice University Gallery, Houston, TX (catalog);

Also traveled to Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX; The Long Center for the Performing Arts, Austin, TX;

and Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT

Pulse Art Fair, Miami, FL, exhibited by Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY

2007 Air Chair, Hillwood Art Museum, Long Island University, CW Post Campus, Brookville, NY

Janet Nolan and Paul Villinski, Art-O-Mat, Long Island City, NY

Metamorphosis, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY

2006 Airlift, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, LA

Portent, Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto, Canada

Wishful Thinking, Scope New York Art Fair, exhibited by Morgan Lehman Gallery

Aloft, Gallery 138, New York, NY

2004 Annette Cyr & Paul Villinski, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Emerging Artists Program, New York, NY

2000 Lumenroom: Paul Villinski & Linn Meyers, Three Rivers Arts Festival Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA

1998 Stephanie Dalpra & Paul Villinski, Zoön Gallery, New Haven, CT

Ellen Harvey & Paul Villinski, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Emerging Artists Program, New York, NY

Paul Villinski / David Krepfle, Artspace, New Haven, CT (Curated by Marian Griffiths, Dir. Sculpture Center)

1997 Work, 3-D Laboratory, New York, NY

1990 The Queens Museum of Art at Bulova Corporate Center, Queens, NY

1989 Midtown Payson Galleries, New York, NY

1987 St. Peter’s Church at Citicorp Center, New York, NY

Selected Corporate and Private Collections

3-D Construction / 3-D Laboratory, New York, NY

21c Museum Hotel, Louisville, KY

ADP Corporation, Chicago, IL

The Alexander Hotel, Indianapolis, IN (commission)

Axinn, Veltrop, & Harkrider, Attorneys, New York, NY (commission)

Barrasso Usdin Kupperman Freeman & Sarver, Attorneys, New Orleans, LA

Brooklyn Union Gas Company, Brooklyn, NY

Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, NV (commission)

Centre Reinsurance, New York, NY

Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, Attorneys, New York, NY

Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH

Dr. Carl Djerassi, San Francisco, CA, (Founder, Djerassi Foundation Resident Artists Program)

El Encanto Hotel, Santa Barbara, CA

Ferrin Pharmaceuticals, Parsippany, NJ

Fidelity Investments, New York, NY

FBS / Gulf States Toyota, Houston, TX (commission)

Paul and Elizabeth Giamatti, Brooklyn, NY

Holland America Cruise Line

Hotel Poydras, New Orleans, LA, (commission)

Hotel Van Zandt, Austin, TX (commission)

John A. Levin Company, New York, NY

Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, Attorneys, Washington, DC

Marriot Hotel, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

McCann Erickson International, New York, NY (commission)

McKenna, Long & Aldridge, Attorneys, Washington, DC (commission)

Idina Menzel, Los Angeles, CA

Microsoft, Fargo, ND

Mound, Cotton & Wollan, Attorneys, New York, NY

New York Life Insurance Company, Parsippany, NJ (commission)

Nomura Securities International, New York, NY

Nu Skin, Provo, UT (commission)

Progressive Insurance, Cleveland, OH

The Carlyle Group, New York, NY (commission)

The Colorodan, Denver, CO (commission)

The Ritz-Carlton Highlands, Lake Tahoe, Truckee, CA (commission)

The World Bank, Washington, DC (commission)

Rogers Family Office, Oakland, CA (commission)

Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (commission)

Sheryl Sandberg, Lake Tahoe, CA (commission)

Sawmill Capital, White Plains, NY (commission)

Second Line Studios, New Orleans (commission)

Linda Grey Sexton, Atherton, CA (commission)

Tommy Hilfiger, New York, NY and Paris, France (commissions)

Waters Design, New York, NY

Tina Weymouth and Chris Franz, Westport, CT

Michelle Williams, Brooklyn, NY

Awards & Fellowships

2020 Villinski’s work featured on United Nations Postal Service commemorative Earth Day Stamp

2017 Artist-in-Residence, Serenbe Institute, Chattahoochee Hills, GA

2012 Artist-in-Residence, Serenbe Institute, Chattahoochee Hills, GA

2009 Artist-in-Residence, Serenbe Institute, Chattahoochee Hills, GA

2008 Artist-in-Residence, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY

1992 Artist-in-Residence, Ucross Foundation, Ucross, WY

1991 Artist-in-Residence, Villa Montalvo Center for the Arts, Saratoga, CA

1988 Agnes Bourne Fellowship in Painting, Djerassi Foundation Resident Artists Program, Woodside, CA

1987 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant

Artist-in-Residence, Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, NY

1984 Michael S. Vivo Prize for Excellence in Drawing, The Cooper Union, New York, NY

1982 David Berger Award for Excellence, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA