THE BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE : Joshua TRILIEGI
Joshua A. TRILIEGI is a third generation Artist, Writer and Filmaker
working and Living in Los Angeles California. Mr. Triliegi has curated
Art exhibitions for over twenty years and has created/ exhibited art,
photographs, sculpture & films with personalities such as: Spike Jonze,
Ron Riehel, Don Harger, Ernesto Potdevin, Henry Duarte, Christina
Habberstock, Heather Van Haaften, Lorna Stovall, James Gabbard,
Karl Jussen, Greg Falk, Lyda Cort, Keith Greco, Seth Kaufman,
Alex McDowell, Martin Durazo, Steve Wong, Madeleine Hoffman,
Chris Hammerlein, Enzia Farrel, Simon Miller, Terry Phillips, Richard
Rancier, Stephen Walker, Bob Millings, Lucas Reiner, James Intveld,
John Matkowsky, Jeffrey Cunningham, Daniel Glass, Anthony Scarpa,
George Clayton Johnson, Jim Freeman, Skip Engblom, MarkMahoney,
& other emerging and established artists whose work has influenced and
developed his own .
Mr Triliegi' s Sculpture, Furniture and Paintings have been employed in
various media. Clients & Sponsors Include : Mercedes Benz, Pepsi, Warner
Brothers, FOX, Radical Media, Ced Moses, Lexus, Honda, Volvo, Pantene,
Oceans 12, Art School Confidential, Catwoman, Fat Albert , Be Cool,
America' s Sweethearts, Nicole Miller's Showroom.
Mr Triliegi' s Photographs have been showcased , printed and exhibited in
The Los AngelesTimes, Angeleno Magazine, East Side Studios, Ghetto Gloss
ArtGallery & other publications.Subjects and locations: Mexico, Rome, Paris,
New York, Amsterdam, Hollywood, Barcelona. The Los Angeles Riots , Los
Angeles Artists, Lucha Libre Wrestling, The Back Lot Series, Downtown LA
Series : black & white 1990 - 2000, Urban Hollywood SQ format color collage.
Recent Works include multi image collages which incorporate thousands of
Photo Prints Joshua has taken over the past five years on extensive walks
throughSouthern California' sDeserts, Mountains, Beaches and Urban areas
as diverse as : SouthCentral, Joshua Tree,Palos Verdes, Chinatown, East LA,
Griffith Park, Century City,Beverly Hills, Downtown LA,Malibu, Little Tokyo,
Korea town, Westwood, Echo Park, WestHollywood, Miracle Mile & More.
Mr Triliegi has been on the design team of Designers & Art Directors such as
Ricki Kline,Scott Oster, Marcos Lutyens & Ron Meyers. His Furniture & Lighting
elements have beendisplayed, exhibited & sold at Blakman Cruz, Linder Design,
North, Daddy' s, Cava, Lava Lounge, Atlas Bar & Grill, Cha Cha Cha in the LA Valley ,
HARARIBeverly Hills & gracedthe cover of esteemed publications, catalogues & books
such as "Restaurants in California ".Mr Triliegi is the Founder of The Bureau of Arts
and Culture in Los Angeles CA USA 1 . 213 .975 .0067 JohnnyMilwaukee@earthlink.net
www.BureauofArtsandculture.com
EXCERPTS FROM :
The Art of Simplicity: LOS ANGELES TIMES ARTICLE 1999
When artist Joshua Triliegi sculpted the interior of the Atlas Bar & Grill
in Los Angeles for designer Ron Meyers in 1989, it wasn't about the money.
"It was never a business for me,"Triliegi says. "It was a love and a desire."
This love and desire were crafted in an antiquated metal shop equipped with
handmade tools and an old stamper from World War II. There, two Cuban
metal smiths taught Triliegi the basics of black smithing.
"I learned to do things with a hammer, an anvil and a piece of metal.That's it.
No frills. It's a great way to start," Triliegi says. Fast-forward 10 years: Triliegi
still sculpts in the same shop, still shuns machinery and still strives for simplicity.
His original furniture, sculpture and design concepts have spread through Los
Angeles more publicly than his name. His metalwork adorns properties in the
Hollywood Hills. His furniture has been snatched up by celebrities like Demi
Moore. And his commercial projects range from a stairwell inspired by Salvador
Dali's mustache in Cava restaurant on 3rd Street in Los Angeles, to organic, tree-
like tables, chairs and leaf- detailed doorknobs for the Nicole Miller showroom
downtown. Not the self-promoting type, the 33-year-old Triliegi has let the work
speak for itself. "I've been sort of a secret in Los Angeles," he says.
Rebecca Lee of San Diego, possibly his greatest fan, has been collecting Triliegi's
work since she first laid eyes on it seven years ago. She's acquired several of
his paintings–including a self-portrait he did in Vienna–sculpture and ironworks.
When not collecting, Lee is busy turning her friends and daughter into collectors.
Three of his 6-foot trellises stand in her garden."I can't describe them, they are
so beautiful. They literally stop traffic," Lee says. "His work is outstanding from
every angle, no matter where you stand." Over the years she's noted a slow progression
in his work. "There's more maturity, more depth now," .
For Milwaukee-born Triliegi, his earliest interests in art and design sprang from child
hood.From a family of artists–his father was a potter, a grandfather made [WOOD]
reliefs–hecontinues to evolve and to explore a variety of media, including woodand glass.
Last summer he designed his first glass-and-spun-metal chandelier forthe restaurant
North on Sunset Boulevard. "It's rare to find a guy like that," says North owner Marc
Smith. "He gets right into the groove. He had a great feel for what we wanted to
accomplish.Some designers think it's all me or nothing. Not only is Joshua a good solo
designer, he can work in a group."
Most recently, Triliegi has launched his first non custom piece–the Vulcan occasional
table,fusing aerospace tooling and '30s Deco shapes. "I really became exclusive and
got off on this whole exclusive edge. That's why I wanted to come up with the Vulcan
objects–to get more into the public," he explains. He's working on expanding the line.
Thetable, which retails for $450, is on sale for $299 at Linder Design on La Brea Avenue
in West Hollywood. In comparison,the price tags on his original works range from $1,000
and up for a bed, $2,000 to $3,000 forsculptures and $8,000 to $10,000 for handcrafted ironwork gates. Current commercial projectsinclude light fixtures for two of designer Ricki Kline's nightspots,the recently opened Playroom and the venue formerly known as Hollywood Moguls. Culling inspiration from Paris to Vienna to the jungles of Bali, both
the artist and his work have metamorphosed over the last decade. And what started with sculpting classical realist objects in clay has led to furniture design. How?"Curiosity," Triliegi explains. One day he decided to make a chair. So he did. And the second time around he
made a comfortable one. "But I don't want to make a chair every year for the next 50 years.
I like to mix it up–including different materials." In Pursuit of Balance and Simplicity After
seven years of working with metal, Triliegi needednew material. "When working with metal,"
he says, "you take this base material, and you're responsible for shaping it, and you're responsible for banging it. You have to hit it very hard. Ibecame a hammer–even in my
personal relations. I was shaping the whole world around me. "That's fine when you're in your
20s, but as you get into your 30s, if you want stable relationships, you can't force things."
In 1996, he set off to Indonesia to search for something more Zen-like. Turning to woodsculpting, he developed skills opposite of those he had applied to metal work. After
shaping and controlling, it was about taking away. He studied with a master carver of Hindu icons, who told him: "In every tree there is a man, and you must remove [the negative] to find
the positive image of the man." Triliegi explains: "With the wood, you just take away what
you don't like; take away the bad things and what you have left is the beauty. And in a
way that's what I needed to do in my own life. Subtract things."
The philosophy gained in the jungles of Bali is manifested in his furniture design. Even
with its space-age spin, the Vulcan table is simple and balanced. Triliegi is the first to
admit he's not in the same place he was 10 years ago, nor does he wish to be.
But one theme has remained constant. "I have always had simplicity."
