Jupigio-Artwork-Gallery
Rare - Unusual - Unforgettable
The Gaga World of Stefani Germanotta
One Woman. Two Identities. One Very Strange World.
Created in 2011, The Gaga World of Stefani Germanotta is a mixed-media exploration of the woman behind one of popular culture's most theatrical personas.
What began as an attempt to paint Lady Gaga quickly became something much more interesting.
I became fascinated by Stefani Germanotta — the ambitious young woman behind the spectacle.
Rather than simply painting her likeness, I built a world around her.
New York becomes a map of her story. Buildings, windows and tiny rooms contain fragments of her childhood, influences, music and rise to fame. Her voice becomes a bizarre musical instrument. Mother Monster towers above her Little Monsters, while fashion, religion, sexuality and performance are woven throughout the composition.
At the centre, Stefani herself can disappear.
A sculptural glass mask, independently designed by a New Zealand glass artist in response to my painting, is held on a commissioned metal gate and frame. Close the gates and Stefani vanishes beneath the spectacle.
Open them and the woman behind Gaga is revealed.
Gaga outside.
Stefani within.
Looking back, however, this artwork means something else to me.
It was my Alpha.
It was the piece that began to show me what kind of artist I was becoming.
I wasn't simply painting pictures.
I was becoming a storyteller in oils.
Look Closer
This artwork rewards curiosity.
The closer you look, the stranger it becomes.
A phrase about Gaga having a great “set of pipes” becomes an anatomical musical instrument. Her flowing red cape becomes the musculature holding that voice together. New York buildings become containers for memories and clues. A young Stefani sits at her piano dreaming beneath the enormous woman she will become.
Even the artwork itself refuses to remain flat.
Glass, metal and moving gates push beyond the canvas, allowing the viewer to physically reveal the person beneath the persona.
The Painting That Changed My Direction
When I made this work, Gaga was still relatively early in her career. There wasn't the enormous history I would later encounter when I began researching David Bowie.
So this isn't an attempt to tell the complete story of Lady Gaga.
It captures a moment.
And perhaps it captures a moment in me too.
The painting is exuberant, ambitious and bursting with ideas. I was experimenting with materials, symbolism and storytelling without yet knowing where any of it would lead.
What followed was far more important than I realised at the time.
The work didn't bring the recognition I originally hoped it might.
Instead, it sent me down a road of exploration and discovery within my own imagination.
From here, the works became more complex. The stories became deeper. Paint began colliding with glass, metal, wood, stone and sculpture.
I had discovered something about myself.
Give me a story and I will pull it apart, crawl inside it and put it back together in my own peculiar way.
Whether that is called art, illustration, narrative painting or something else doesn't particularly concern me.
It is my voice.
And it is rather unusual.
Go Inside the Artwork
There is far more to this painting than I could possibly explain on a collection page.
So its story continues across two Artist Journals.
Journal One — Behind the Mask
Go inside the painting and discover Stefani beneath Gaga, the strange anatomy of her voice, Mother Monster, the glass mask and the tiny stories hidden throughout New York.
Journal Two — The Painting That Didn't Open the Door
What happened when I tried to get the finished work in front of Lady Gaga — and why the door that didn't open may have been far more important than the one I wanted.
Title: The Gaga World of Stefani Germanotta
Artist: Julia O'Sullivan
Created: 2011
Medium: Oil painting with glass and metal mixed-media elements
Original Artwork: Unique one-of-one original
Signed: Yes
Limited Edition Prints: Available on request