Statement

Working with video, music and various other media tools, I investigate our cultural infatuation with popular media, anxiety, and narcissism. I vacillate among forms ranging from abstraction to portraiture, documentary, and satire. I enjoy telling jokes and I try to exploit the moment just after the punchline when one is left with the lingering subtleties of social disease.

I am inspired by material that balances sarcasm and prayer, giving rise to work that examines religion, humor, politics, and mass-media. My new digital film, Thanks for Giving My Number Back (2006), explores the thin lines between love and death, fantasy and reality, hope and helplessness. Equal parts self-portraiture and science fiction, the story shapes itself into a tangle of chuckles, heartache, and anxiety. My video serial, the Untitled Book Series (2001-2004) is a non-linear suite of short videos anchored in relationships to specific books. Each video in this series is a conceptually insular packet of cultural, literary, personal, or historical information. These pieces viewed together are a self-portrait. My recent installations and video projects have incorporated superhero action figures, Zoloft pill bottles, and of course, religion.

Biographical Information

Michael Trigilio is a multimedia artist living in San Diego, CA. Born and raised in San Antonio, TX, he received his B.A. in Humanities from the University of Texas at San Antonio. His fear of religion notwithstanding, he was ordained as a lay Buddhist priest in 1997, a role from which he resigned five years later. He received his M.F.A. from Mills College in 2003. His work has been presented at the Anthology Film Archives in New York, Southern Exposure Gallery and New Langton Arts in San Francisco, and the Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain in Strasbourg. Michael is a founding member of the independent radio project Neighborhood Public Radio and a co-creator with Heike Liss of complaintproject.org. He recently received a full-time appointment to the Visual Arts faculty at UC San Diego where he teaches courses in Media Arts.

updated November 4, 2007

b. 1975, San Antonio, TX

EDUCATION 
2003  M.F.A., Electronic Music & Recording Media (Intermedia Studies), Mills College, Oakland, CA
1999  B.A., Humanities (Art History & Criticism), University of Texas at San Antonio  

SOLO EXHIBITIONS, PUBLIC ART COMMISSIONS, PERFORMANCES
2007
Neighborhood Public Radio: Experimental Radio Lab, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
Thanks for Giving My Number Back, Artist's Television Access, San Francisco, CA
Thanks for Giving My Number Back, 21 Grand Gallery, Oakland, CA
Thanks for Giving My Number Back (preview), Mills College, Oakland, CA

2006
Radio Cartography, (solo exhibit as part of Neighborhood Public Radio), Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Superordinary, Keys That Fit Gallery, Oakland, CA
International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA),Zero One Festival (as part of Neighborhood Public Radio) San Jose, CA

2005
Michael Trigilio: Untitled Book Series, Volume 2, Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA
Creative Justice, Amnesty International Exhibit, University of San Francisco, CA (solo musical performance)
Neighborhood Public Radio, Kuda.org., Novi Sad, Serbia.
“Lost in Transition,” (w/ Neighborhood Public Radio), Sarajevo Center for Contemporary Art / Goethe Institute / Pro.Ba. Sarajevo, Bosnia-Hercegovina.

2002
Untitled Book Series, Volume 1, Danforth Hall, Mills College, Oakland, CA

1998
Starve Performance, Clipper Ship Space, San Antonio, TX

1997
Michael Trigilio: Starve, Cabeza de Piedra Gallery, San
Antonio, TX
Michael Trigilio: Hospice 1, Wong Spot Gallery, San Antonio, TX
Hospice 1, San Antonio College, San Antonio, TX

1995
Archipelago, Pt.1, 1203 Artspace, San Antonio, TX

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS & SCREENINGS
2007
The Mobile Archive, WYSPA Art Institute, Gdansk, Poland
SoCal Animators - Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA
Bay Area Music and Dance Video Art, Fluctuating Images, Stuttgart, Germany
Bay Area Music and Dance Video Art, The Lab, San Francisco, CA
P.O.V. Animation Festival, Cerrito Theater, El Cerrito, CA
The Mobile Archive, Kunstverein, Hamburg, Germany
7th Annual 21 Grand Benefit, 21 Grand Gallery, Oakland, CA
Stranger Than Fiction, Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, Finland
T-10 Video Festival, 21 Grand Gallery, Oakland, CA

2006
The Mobile Archive: Cross Currents, Israeli Digital Art Center, Holon, Israel
The Whole Story, Watchword Press Exhibit, Theater Artaud, San Francisco, CA
Stranger Than Fiction, The Lab, San Francisco, CA
Community Virology, Lobot Gallery, Oakland, CA
6th Annual 21 Grand Benefit, 21 Grand Gallery, Oakland, CA
P.O.V. Animation Festival, Parkway Theater, Oakland, CA
Filthy Filthy Puppets, Artist’s Television Access, San Francisco, CA
Ghosttown Festival (as part of Neighborhood Public Radio), Portland, OR

2005
T-10 Video Festival (featured artist), 21 Grand Gallery, Oakland, CA
Truth and Lies, Mission 17 Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Illuminated Corridor, Downtown Oakland, CA
Ebay Art Project, Works Gallery, San Jose, CA
Conflict/Interview, Glass Eye series at Barbés, Brooklyn, NY
Art Attack Film Festival, Plattsburgh For Peace, Plattsburgh, NY
The Diorama Show, Mission 17 Gallery, San Francisco, CA
5th Annual 21 Grand Benefit, 21 Grand Gallery, Oakland, CA
Cross Currents: Bay Area Video Art, Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg, France
Cross Currents: Bay Area Video Art, Fluctuating Images, Stuttgart, Germany
Cross Cuts: Telling, Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA
After Hours, Works Gallery, San Jose, CA
Southern Exposure 30th Anniversary Art Auction, Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Version>5 Festival, Buddy Gallery, Chicago, IL
Video Time: Works in Series by Ellen Lake and Michael Trigilio, Works Gallery, San Jose, CA

2004
By Any Means UnNecessary, Mission 17, San Francisco, CA
T-10 Video Festival, 21 Grand Gallery, Oakland, CA
Monumental, Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Secede or Celebrate, Punch Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Seattle, WA
In Troubled Times (film series), SUDAC, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
VICE: The Exploration of Non-Virtuous Qualities, The B Complex, Atlanta, GA
Relative: Photographing Domesticity, Athens Institute for Contemporary Art, Athens, GA
The Way We Work, Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Politics, Diablo Valley College Art Gallery, Pleasant Hill, CA
Arizona State University Short Film & Video Festival in Santa Ana, Rat Powered Films, Santa Ana, CA
DIGit Media Exposition, Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, Narrowsburg, NY
ASU Art Museum Short Film & Video Festival, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
How-To Intensive, New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA
Empire Ultra, The Lab, San Francisco, CA
Neighborhood Public Radio, 21 Grand Gallery, Oakland, CA
New Filmmakers Series, Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY

2003
Open Zone, Ocularis Gallery, New York, NY
Crash, Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Videomixtape3, Lucky Tackle, Oakland, CA
Videomixtape3, Pond, San Francisco, CA
Thursday Night Special, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Video Works: Heike Liss, Nomi Talisman, & Michael Trigilio, 21 Grand Gallery, Oakland, CA

2002 
Rotterdam VHS Festival, Het Wilde Weten, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Thursday Night Special, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 
Signal Flow, Mills College, Oakland, CA 

2001  
Witness, Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA  
Think Again, Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Blown Circuits, CCAC, San Francisco, CA  
Student Exchange exhibit, SFAI, San Francisco, CA
Video Pieces, Mills College, Oakland, CA  

2000  
Salon, CCAC, San Francisco, CA  
Edible Material, University of Texas at San Antonio Satellite Gallery  

1998  
Parallels, Blue Star Art Space, San Antonio, TX  

COMMISSIONS
2005
Nature (Superheroism), commissioned by Michael Rosenthal to create an original work for the Ebay Art Project exhibit at Works/San Jose.

2003
Decorum (dance by Lesley Braithwaite ), composed music and directed sound design
“Pope of Trash” (video by Nomi Talisman), composed and produced title music

2003
Untitled (dance by Jessy Tuddenham), composed music and directed sound design

2002
Another Time in Another Place (dance by Kathrine McClintock), composed music and directed sound design

2001
French Domino Theory (dance by Lesley Braithwaite), composed music and directed sound design

LIST OF SELECTED GROUP AND FESTIVAL PERFORMANCES 
2006 Three Religions, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2006 Ghosttown Festival (w/ Neighborhood Public Radio), Portland, OR
2005 Pocket Full of Horses, 21 Grand Gallery, Oakland, CA
2005 Version 5 Festival (w/ Neighborhood Public Radio), Buddy Gallery, Chicago, IL
2004   The Starve Zone with Michael Starve, Neighborhood Public Radio, 21 Grand, Oakland, CA
2003   The Spring Has Sprung ("Comfort Song") With the Contemporary Performance Ensemble, Mills College, Oakland
2001   Starve Moe’s, Moe’s Books, Berkeley, CA
2001   Starve Prince (Live), Telegraph & Dwight, Berkeley, CA
1998   Starve Performance, Blue Star Artspace, San Antonio, TX
1996   Archipelago, Pt.1, Jump Start Performance Space, San Antonio, TX

PUBLICATIONS & BROADCASTS
Kitchen Sink Magazine, "Seasonal Cinema," by Michael Trigilio, Issue KS12, Fall 2005
The Starve Zone on Amandla, KALX 90.7 FM, Berkeley, CA, monthly, January 2004- present
Interviewed by Lee Baby Sims on KALX 90.7 FM, Berkeley, CA, November 2003
Crack O'Dawn . Interviewed by Barbara Golden on KPFA 94.1 FM, Berkeley, CA, August 2003
Pop Abstraction, Humor, Narcissism, and God (Not God Really, It’s just that when I say “God” what I Really Mean is “Sex” and/or “Death.” MFA Thesis, Mills College, Oakland, CA
Turning Wheel, "No Taxes For Torture," by Michael Trigilio, October 2000
Street Spirit Magazine, "Thich Nhat Hanh" by Michael Trigilio, September 2000
Musica Nova, Texas Public Radio, 88.3 FM, San Antonio, TX. December 30, 1994

PRESS
Sfweekly.com, “Don’t Start Believin’” by Hiya Swanhuyser, December 2005.
Punk Planet, "Neighborhood Public Radio," by Roman Mars, issues PP69, September 2005.
San Francisco Magazine. “Best of Arts and Entertainment: Super Local Radio Station,” July 2005.
SF Gate (Culture Blog), "Friday night art opening: The Diorama Show," by Matt Petty, June 27, 2005.
Sfist.”Bay Blogger Thursday Interview”. Jackson West, June 2005.
San Francisco Bay Guardian. "Critic's Choice - 'Cross Cuts,'" by Clark Buckner, June 1, 2005
Danas. “Neighborhood Public Radio U Novi Sadum”.M.J., June 2005
Chicago Reader. NPR at Version>5, April 2005
Chicagoist.com.”Cos Da Fat Cats Don't Own Dem Airwaves”. Sam Bakken., April 2005
East Bay Express. "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by NPR at 21 Grand," January 12, 2005
SF Gate, "By Any Means UnNecessary," Alison Bing, January 2005
Artforum. Pamela M. Lee's Top Ten of 2004. "The Way We Work," at Southern Exposure. December, 2004.
Wirednews.com. "Boomboxes Are Hip Again," Elizabeth Biddlecombe, October 27th, 2004
East Bay Express. Review of "The Way We Work" 2004.
SF Weekly, Review of "The Way We Work" 2004.
Switch, “ASU Art Museum Creates a Beach-Blanket Film Festival,” Billy Cioffi, April 2004
East Valley Tribune, “The Skinny on Short Films,” Jennifer Wood, April 23, 2004.
The State Press Magazine, “The Reel Deal” Kathleen Neil, April 22, 2004
Mills Weekly, "Surreal show awakens senses" by Corinne Slar, November 21, 2002
The Dallas Morning News, "Gene map may force tough calls" By Jeffrey Weiss, July 2, 2000

SELECTED GRANTS & AWARDS 
2006 Creative Work Fund Grant for Neighborhood Public Radio and Southern Exposure Gallery
2006 ISEA: Zero One Festival – Community Domain Commission for Neighborhood Public Radio
2005 CEC ArtLinks Grant for Neighborhood Public Radio
2002 Mills College Graduate Research Grant
2002 Crothers Scholarship Award
2001 Mills College Graduate Research Grant
2001 Mills College Graduate Assistantship
1998 Visual Arts Scholarship, University of Texas at San Antonio
1994 ASCAP Young Composers Awards Honorable Mention

PRODUCTION
The Lama’s English Lessons - poems by Tony Trigilio, book jacket design, published by Three Candles Press, December 2006

“The Meaning of Miniscule” (by Gail Wight), produced and edited short documentary about Ms. Wight’s recent sculptural work. October 2006.

The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast (by Matmos), recording engineer for voice recordings on “Tract for Valerie Solanas,” May 2006 (uncredited)

Surface and Time
videos by Heike Liss with music by Fred Frith
2004 – 2005
Music recording engineer

Neighborhood Public Radio promotional CD
Released April, 2005
Editor, co-producer with LeE Montgomery, narrator.

Contempt for Music by Michael Trigilio
Released Winter 2005
Producer, songwriter, performer.

Decorum (dance by Lesley Braithwaite )
8th Street Studio Theater, Berkeley, CA
August 27-28, 2004
Composer and sound designer.

AXIS & Other Works by Philip Krumm
For release Fall 2006- release date TBA
Published by IDEA Records, San Antonio, TX
Remastering producer and engineer.

"M - 7/21 - 1" by Brett Larner
Pieces for Guitar by Brett Larner, Burkhard Strangl, and Taku Sugimoto
Released August 2003
Published by Bruit Secret, Metz, France
Recording engineer.

"M - 7/7 - 5" by Brett Larner
CD published in journal Improvised Music from Japan 2002-2003
Published January 2003
Published by Improvised Music from Japan, Tokyo, Japan

LECTURES
March 14, 2006
Guest Artist Lecture, University of California Berkeley, CA
Lecture: "Untitled Book Series and Serial Methodology"

May 10, 2005
Guest Artist Lecture, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
Lecture: "Untitled Book Series and Serial Methodology"

May 6, 2005
Given with Neighborhood Public Radio
Artist's Television Access, San Francisco, CA
Lecture & Presentation from the "Version >05 Festival."

April 28th, 2005
Guest Artist Lecture, Columbia College, Chicago, IL
Lecture: "The Untitled Book Series and Visual Language"

February 2, 2005
Guest Artist Lecture, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
Lecture: "Animation and Interactivity in Flash MX"

January 21, 2004
Given with Heike Liss
New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA
Lecture: "The Complaint Project"

November 5, 2003
Guest Artist Lecture, Mills College, Oakland, CA
Lecture: "Narcissism in the Untitled Book Series"

September 18, 2003
Guest Artist Lecture, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
Lecture: "About the Untitled Book Series"

April 8, 2003
Guest Artist Lecturer, Mills College, Oakland, CA
Lecture: "Pop Abstraction and DVD"