Fred Tomaselli first emerged as an artist in the late 1970s out of the underground punk-rock scene in Los Angeles. The drug-centered culture of his youth served as an important influence on the development of his art, as did his abiding love of the wilderness.
Fred Tomaselli
Biography
Fred Tomaselli first emerged as an artist in the late 1970s out of the underground punk-rock scene in Los Angeles. The drug-centered culture of his youth served as an important influence on the development of his art, as did his abiding love of the wilderness. His pictures often give the impression of a psychedelic black light poster. Upon closer inspection, these intricately patterned paintings reveal their composition of very unusual things embedded in multiple layers of highly polished resin: jewel-like strands of actual prescription pills, real marijuana leaves, cut-out pictures of birds, flowers, human hands, painted flames, and patterns of painted pills. The overall effect is dizzying as one constantly moves from looking at the details of the parts to admiring the decorative patterns of the whole.
Tomaselli combines the world of nature (leaves, flowers, birds) with contemporary culture, creating beauty from the flotsam and jetsam of American consumerism. His work often evokes the abundance of “stuff” in our lives, but without overt comment or condemnation. Instead, his paintings exude a visionary quality. While the drugs included can no longer alter consciousness by being ingested, the artist suggests that perhaps now the paintings themselves have the power to change consciousness.
Education
1982 – B.A., Painting and Drawing, California State University, Fullerton, California
Fred Tomaselli has said, “Painting has traditionally been seen as a window onto another reality. I am interested in the relationship between this myth and the broader culture that contains it.” In his lushly layered collage paintings, made from highly unorthodox materials, Tomaselli approaches the idea of the transformative capacity of art with a decidedly twenty-first-century twist.
Exhibitions
2006
Fred Tomaselli, James Cohan Gallery
2005
Fred Tomaselli, Carlier – Gebauer, Berlin, Germany
Fred Tomaselli, White Cube, London, UK
Fred Tomaselli: Monsters of Paradise, organized by Fiona Bradley, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland; traveling to Domus Artium, Salamanca, Spain; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
The Rose Art Museum of Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
2003
Albright-Knox Gallery of Art, Buffalo, New York
James Cohan Gallery, New York
2001
White Cube, London “Gravity’s Rainbow”, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana
Fred Tomaselli: 10-Year Survey, curated by Amy Cappellazzo, Palm Beach
Institute of Contemporary Art, Florida; traveled to SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico
2000
“Phrase Book” (text by Rick Moody, illustrated by Fred Tomaselli), Christine Burgin Gallery, New York
James Cohan Gallery, New York
