About this Work
About the Artist
American
b. 1946 San Francisco, California
d. 2015 Emeryville, CaliforniaJerry Lee Carniglia was born and raised in San Francisco. He joined the Navy in 1965 where he was trained to be a radar operator aboard the USS Strong, first domestically and later on the Mekong Delta. After leaving the Navy in 1968, Jerry attended College of Marin while continuing his informal apprenticeship learning his father’s cabinetmaking pastime. On weekends, Jerry helped build a new family home in Fairfax where he later resided. He discovered his great creative capacity for making artisan furniture as well as learning the building trade.Jerry traveled worldwide, at one point spending almost two years travelling from Tunisia to Cape Town, followed by a trip across the US in an unreliable VW bus. Returning to complete a bachelor’s degree in English at UC Berkeley in 1975, Jerry was quickly encouraged to transfer his boisterous enthusiasm to Drama. He went on to become a founding member of Berkeley Lights Theater Ensemble, appeared with San Francisco Eureka Theater Company and designed sets for MaFishCo.In 1980 he moved to Emeryville and became part of its embryonic artist colony. Jerry was to make Emeryville home for the rest of his life. He was a luminary of the community, helping his fellow artists and participating in the lively political debates that guided the direction of the changing city. Jerry explored his skills as an artisan furniture-maker and marveled at his own transition into furniture as art. His work was so fine it led to recognition by Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum on the East Coast and The Oakland Museum of California on the West. Eventually Jerry found that cabinetry alone constrained his creative forces. He made several pilgrimages to view the Old Masters in Europe and turned exclusively to painting in 1989. He won admission to the UC Berkeley Fine Arts Department, where he received the James Phelan Award and the Eisner prize, graduating with an MFA in 1993.Jerry Carniglia’s paintings exploded on the art community. Over the next 22 years, he created five series of works. Between furniture and painting, Jerry had nine solo exhibitions, at least nineteen collaborative shows, won seven grants and prizes, and had his work selected for the permanent collections at the San Francisco de Young Fine Arts Museum and Berkeley Art Museum.
b. 1946 San Francisco, California
d. 2015 Emeryville, CaliforniaJerry Lee Carniglia was born and raised in San Francisco. He joined the Navy in 1965 where he was trained to be a radar operator aboard the USS Strong, first domestically and later on the Mekong Delta. After leaving the Navy in 1968, Jerry attended College of Marin while continuing his informal apprenticeship learning his father’s cabinetmaking pastime. On weekends, Jerry helped build a new family home in Fairfax where he later resided. He discovered his great creative capacity for making artisan furniture as well as learning the building trade.Jerry traveled worldwide, at one point spending almost two years travelling from Tunisia to Cape Town, followed by a trip across the US in an unreliable VW bus. Returning to complete a bachelor’s degree in English at UC Berkeley in 1975, Jerry was quickly encouraged to transfer his boisterous enthusiasm to Drama. He went on to become a founding member of Berkeley Lights Theater Ensemble, appeared with San Francisco Eureka Theater Company and designed sets for MaFishCo.In 1980 he moved to Emeryville and became part of its embryonic artist colony. Jerry was to make Emeryville home for the rest of his life. He was a luminary of the community, helping his fellow artists and participating in the lively political debates that guided the direction of the changing city. Jerry explored his skills as an artisan furniture-maker and marveled at his own transition into furniture as art. His work was so fine it led to recognition by Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum on the East Coast and The Oakland Museum of California on the West. Eventually Jerry found that cabinetry alone constrained his creative forces. He made several pilgrimages to view the Old Masters in Europe and turned exclusively to painting in 1989. He won admission to the UC Berkeley Fine Arts Department, where he received the James Phelan Award and the Eisner prize, graduating with an MFA in 1993.Jerry Carniglia’s paintings exploded on the art community. Over the next 22 years, he created five series of works. Between furniture and painting, Jerry had nine solo exhibitions, at least nineteen collaborative shows, won seven grants and prizes, and had his work selected for the permanent collections at the San Francisco de Young Fine Arts Museum and Berkeley Art Museum.
