Artist Talk-A Voyage through Cianne Fragione's Mind

Image c/o Saint Mary's College Museum of Art IG Page

By Emily Brazeal
On-Campus Columnist 

On September 19, Saint Mary’s Museum of Art officially welcomed its new exhibit, Isole: A Voyage Among my Dreams, by Cianne Fragione. Fragione, a Bay Area-based artist and heavily influenced by her Italian heritage, spent her earlier years performing as a classical dancer and is now known for her work in abstract expressionism. The museum currently displays 33 of her art pieces, over multiple decades of Fragione’s career. A day prior to the opening, Britt Royer–the museum's curator–sat down with Fragione to discuss the exhibit.

It was encouraging to see even before the talk began, Royer and Fragione chatting as if they were old college friends. When Royer offered Fragione a cup of coffee, Cianne chimed back, “I’m already too wired, you won’t be able to shut me up!”
 
Once introductions were through, the first piece they dove into was Fragione’s Ritorno, a three-panel piece that intertwined a variety of different found objects together. She likes to use a technique called assemblage, similar to collage but instead with 3D objects. Fragione paused to say, “Objects are history…they tell stories.” The amazing part of these pieces is that every observer may interpret the story differently. The piece has such delicate objects such as children’s ballet shoes, contrasted with large, contorted metal strips. Fragione expressed how much she loves “combining the masculine and the feminine.”

Royer brought up Fragione’s 2023 piece called Bundles: Secret Textiles, which quite literally consist of bundles of paper entwined together with fishing wire. Fragione commented about wanting to gift her old diaries to her children, but after reflection realized she could never share the contents. She instead transformed them into a beautiful piece, publicly displayed but topics never divulged. Royer commented that Fragione is at the same time, “revealing and concealing.”

Fragione uses a vast amount of different materials in her artwork but one consistent medium seen is oil paints. They are used in such paintings as Sacred Cheese, Mediterraneo (Montale), and Out of the Sea Rose the Country/I Dreamed. She sighed saying, “I love oil paint paint–I just lust for it”

Fragione’s background in dance repeatedly came up throughout the talk due to the amount of movement and motion shown in her pieces. Fragione stated that although she does not traditionally dance as often as she did in former years, she is “just dancing differently” now through her art. Even proudly stating that sometimes she dances on her art.

When asked who her intended audience was, Fragione laughed: “The first person is me!”  Fragione went on to state that whoever wishes to look at her paintings is her audience. Her confidence was refreshing as she claimed that her art, “is not meant to please everybody.” 

One of the most intriguing things about the collection and her as an artist is her connection to her audience. The collection is called “A Voyage Among my Dreams” however Fragione commented, “It’s your dream, not mine.” She expressed how she wishes everyone would interpret her art as they please or, quoting her, “trust what you’re seeing”

You can now view Fragione’s collection at Saint Mary’s Museum of Art here on campus. Take time to appreciate the beauty of the pieces and consider the story or dream they reveal to you.