On March 10, 2021, West Liberty University’s Nutting Gallery opened its doors to students, faculty, and local artist guests for the first time in what feels like forever to showcase the work of featured artist Rebecca Signoriello. A native of Northwestern Pennsylvania, Signoriello attended Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 2004 where she obtained her Bachelors of Fine Arts in animation and graphic design; she then went on to open Signoriello Studios where she specialized in commissioned murals, all the while retaining her job as a paver and manual laborer.

Succeeding several years of painting and building up a financial basis from paving and roadwork, Signoriello continued her education at the New York Academy of Art; during this time she received several significant merit awards, including the Walter Erlebacher award, as well as being granted an Artist Residency at Leipzig International Arts Programma in Germany. Attaining her Masters of Fine Arts in 2011, Signoriello has studied under several accomplished contemporary painters; some of which include Vincent Desiderio, Steven Assael, Margaret Bowland and Jenny Saville. Many of her works are housed in private collections scattered from New York, Pennsylvania, and Florida all the way to Germany and Monte Carlo Monaco.

Drawing from her experience as a paver and manual laborer, Signoriello created a body of works entitled The Grit Series, this is the collection that is currently being showcased in the Nutting Gallery’s This is Work show. With more than 20 pieces on display and within the collection, the series is highly ambitious and magnifies Signoriello’s masterful skills within the field of artistry, composition, and design; but this series is not meant to simply showcase a flex of Signoriello’s creative muscles, rather, it is quite the opposite — it’s made to showcase her, and many other of her friend’s and coworkers, physical muscle and strength. “As a construction worker, I wanted to bring to light the people that you might drive by everyday and not even pay attention to, I wanted these construction workers and manual laborers to act as a confrontation, of sorts, for the viewer, given their lifelike size and scale,” Signoriello stated when asked what inspired the works as a whole.

She went on to discuss the nature of reality within her pieces, commenting on the fact that they’re not just fictional compositions or imagined designs, but rather real life snapshots of working men and women. For her, personally, this idea is only further accentuated, as the reason she got into construction work originally was because of her dad suggesting it to her; as a paver himself, he knew that this would be able to help her pay for her continuing educational ventures. Naturally, Signoriello’s favorite piece of the series includes her father; “In His Footsteps is my favorite piece for a lot of reasons; for one, it captures the idea of me following my dad in the work I chose to support myself as a growing artist, but it also illustrates a sense of intimacy between not only my father and I, but both of us and the work we do. Artistically, I also really enjoy the piece compositionally, and how the light within the piece moves around on the figures.”

The This is Work show will be on display within the Nutting Gallery, located within the Fine Arts Building, until April 14, 2021; the gallery is open Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., face masks are required.

For more information on the Nutting Gallery and it’s different exhibitions throughout the year, please contact Professor Brian Fencl at [email protected] or 304-336-8433.

For more information about available work, exhibitions or commissions from artist Rebecca Signoriello, please contact her at [email protected] or 724-679-1355; a collection of her works along with more information can be found on her website at http://www.rabeccasignoriello.com/.