JP TERLIZZI | DANDELIONS ARE NOT WEEDS
JP Terlizzi (American) is a New York City photographer whose contemporary practice explores themes of memory, relationship, and identity. His images are rooted in the personal and heavily influenced around the notion of home, legacy, and family. He is curious about how the past relates and intersects with the present, and how the present enlivens the past, shaping one’s identity.
DANDELIONS ARE NOT WEEDS speaks to a time in my life that is filled with personal metamorphosis, impermanence, and uncertainties: the loss of family, adult children moving forward with their lives, the unpredictability of career, my own aging and mortality have taken on a different weight.
Things that I took for granted or felt I had control over at some point are no longer in my control. I’ve become more introspective, less in need of excitement and drama. I’ve grown to have a disdain for superficiality and intolerance of inauthenticity. Psychologists refer to this period as “intrinsic maturation” – a mellowing with age.
For several years, I’ve dedicated time to disconnect from the pandemonium and congestion of my everyday surroundings, giving myself permission to look inward and self-reflect. I create images as a counterpoint to tame the chaos, providing balance, and a sense of calmness. Like the dandelion, the villain of the American suburban landscape often overlooked or discounted as an ugly, annoying weed, the images in this series find beauty in the gaps and margins and the
meditative qualities in solitary moments. They serve as a means to process personal loss and transitions, providing solace in reshaping one’s relational environment.
JP TERLIZZI
Born and raised in the farmlands of Central New Jersey, JP earned a BFA in Communication Design at the Kutztown University of PA with a background in graphic design and advertising. He has studied photography at both the International Center of Photography in New York and Maine Media College in Rockport, ME.
His work has been exhibited widely in galleries and museums nationally, including shows at The Center for Fine Art Photography, Vicki Myhren Gallery at the University of Denver, The Griffin Museum, Tilt Gallery, Panopticon Gallery, Candela Gallery, The Los Angeles Center of Photography, University Gallery at Cal Poly, and The Berlin Foto Biennale, Berlin, Germany, among others.
JP’s solo exhibits include: Foto Relevance Gallery (Houston, TX), The Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, Cameraworks Gallery (Portland, OR), and Soho Photo Gallery (New York, NY) Awards and honors include Critical Mass Top 50 (2019, 2018), Critical Mass Finalist (2016, 2015), Fresh Finalist (Klompching Gallery, 2019), First Look Winner (Panopticon Gallery, 2019), International Portfolio Competition Winner (Soho Photo Gallery, 2018).
Print and online publications include PDN, Shots Magazine, Yogurt Magazine (Italy), Mono Chroma Magazine, Photo Emphasis, All About Photo, L’oeil de la Photographie, The Photo Review, F-Stop, and Abridged Magazine (Ireland).
JP’s work is held in both permanent and private collections across the US and Canada.
