Gina Pisto ( she/her )

How is one transported through a memory? Within the process of remembering, we oscillate between past and present. The space between, through that rumination, creates variance and distortion within the memory itself. Our understanding of the past changes every time we recall it—there is an inherent destruction and fragmentation that occurs through remembering. I am curious about how one reconciles the space between past and present, life and death, permanence and impermanence. This mediation is a result of a search for meaning, an action that is meant to make sense of the past.

​ Through the construction of objects that reference still life paintings, flora, and domestic space, I examine the transformative and transportive potential of objects. It is through emotional capacity and imbued memory that ordinary things become extra-ordinary. I utilize quotidian forms and materials to construct ceramic works that function as portals—gateways to the past. Reminders of life, and death, are woven throughout the work within the sculpted flowers, bones, animals, insects, fruit, shells, and timepieces. The minimal color palette allows the work to transcend the mimetic and reach towards the metaphorical ways in which we access memory through objects. Upon viewing the work, one is at the precipice—the teetering edge between past and present. It is my hope that through further investigation of the work, the viewer passes through this metaphorical threshold to explore the past.

Gina Pisto (she/her) is an artist currently living in Kansas City, Missouri. She completed her Masters of Fine Arts in Ceramics at Ohio University in 2022 and has exhibited her work nationally in various group and solo exhibitions. She has been awarded recognition from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) and the Michigan Ceramic Art Association (MCAA). Pisto most recently exhibited her work in Passing Moments: 11th Annual Resident Artist Exhibition at Belger Arts in Kansas City, MO and DeadXCenter: Tales from the Middle at SPRING/BREAK Art Show in New York, NY. Pisto is an adjunct professor at Benedictine College in Atchison, KS, and recently finished a two-year residency at Belger Crane Yard Studios, where she also teaches community classes and private lessons. Pisto’s work explores the transportive potential of objects as they relate to notions of memory and collecting.