John Giorno

New York based artist, John Giorno, is best known for his work as a poet and performance artist. In 1965, he founded the not-for-profit production company Giorno Poetry Systems with the goal of connecting poetry and related art forms to a larger audience using innovative ideas, such as communication technology, and audio-visual materials and techniques. One of his early multimedia poetry experiments included Dial-A-Poem, where people could listen to a poem offered from fragments of various live recordings.  Inspired by a close relationship with Andy Warhol (Giorno was the protagonist of Andy Warhol’s “Sleep”), and subsequent relationships with many great Pop Artists including Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, Giorno began applying Pop Art techniques to his poetry, creating work known as his Poem Prints and Poem Paintings. John has been working with Jean-Paul Russell at Durham Press since its inception in the late 80s.

Giorno has had solo exhibitions of his paintings and prints internationally including, “Black Paintings and Drawings,” Nicole Klagsbrun, NY, 2010; “Life is a Killer” Galerie Almine Rech, Paris; “Thanx 4 Nothing: Drawings and Print Poems,” Galerie Jordan Seydoux, Berlin, Germany; “Millions of Stars Come into my Heart, Welcome Home,” Galerie du jour Agnès, Paris, France. He has been included in group exhibitions including “Modern Modern,” Chelsea Art Museum, New York, NY; “Traces du Sacre,” Georges Pompidou Center, Paris, France; and Musée d´art moderne et contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland. Giorno’s work is also included in numerours museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris.

Courtesy of Durham Press