Gerry Trilling

Gerry Trilling received her B.F.A. in Painting from KCAI. In 2001 she received a Kansas Arts Commission Mini Fellowship and in 2008 she received a Professional Development Grant from the Creative Capital Foundation. In 2014 she was selected for inclusion in The Kansas City Collection III. Her most recent solo exhibits were In Site at City Ice Arts, Kansas City, MO and Gerry Trilling at Centric Projects in Kansas City, Missouri. Her work was also in a two-person showcase at Zora at la Esquina, Kansas City, Missouri. Recent group shows include National Women in the Arts 2012 Biennial Kansas City at UMKC, Between Thee and Me at Epsten Gallery, Kansas City Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland Park, Kansas. Upcoming exhibitions include The Transformers, curated by China Marks (2016) at the Foosaner Museum of Art in Melbourne, Florida.

I’m building a narrative of sofa signposts, of belonging and integration. I shop, build, and scout flea markets and upscale fabric stores. Material culture references many things: changing taste, usage, culture and most of all, time.  

My parents came to St. Louis from Vienna to escape the Holocaust. Our neighborhood and social circle consisted of immigrants like us, Jews from all over Europe, each family with its own traditions, foods and sofas. Ours was covered in a fashionable nubby dark green bouclé.  As time went on and we integrated into American culture our place narrative changed. We moved out of apartments, bought houses in different neighborhoods and as we expanded our definition of identity, we bought different sofas. 

The stuff of material culture is full of discovery that is so idiosyncratic, so personal, so emotional, so very odd. It is noisy and messy and describes human life, its wants, needs and desires, as well as daily life from time before and what’s to come.

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