Jamian Juliano-Villani to Open New York Gallery O'Flannery's After Pandemic Curation

Jamian Juliano-Villani will launch her own gallery in New York called O'Flannery's, with an exterior resembling an Irish-American bar and an interior like a sober insurance office. This follows her 2020 curation at Massimo Di Carlo in London during the pandemic's onset. The artist, known for her defiant approach to artworld etiquette and refusal of censorship, plans two-person mashup shows featuring artists, designers, and illustrators not typically seen in galleries—excluding friends. She describes her paintings as intentionally ugly, comparing them to car accidents, and emphasizes emotional quality over aesthetics. Juliano-Villani self-funds the venture, accepting financial loss to create shows she describes as fun, weird, and smart. Her work collages disparate styles and subjects, canceling meaning to generate humor. She criticizes current artistic timidity, citing Bjarne Melgaard's earlier brashness as exemplary. The artist believes art should be uncensored, presenting ideas without dictation, and rejects external influence, having experienced pressure from collectors and platforms like ArtRank. She references Frank Zappa's views on censorship and South Park's satire of contemporary sensitivities. Juliano-Villani's career expanded from modest comic appropriations to large-scale canvases, with her popularity growing despite—or because of—her disregard for social graces.