TONY MOORE: Transit. Sculpture & fire painting
Exhibition Dates: january 29 - february 23, 2019
Reception: Thursday, january 31, 6 - 8 pm
Artist’s Talk: saturday, february 23, 4 pm
The Painting Center presents the solo exhibition TONY MOORE: TRANSIT. Sculpture & Fire Painting. In his work, Tony Moore is concerned with the relationship of humanity and nature. He conceives of an expanded concept of “Nature” embodying all existence, both the seen and unseen, socio-political events, daily occurrences, as well as private intuitions that are made concrete through creative action. His objects are places of remembrance where multiplicities of associations take place. Most recently these have been concerned with issues of the human condition, particularly Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Injustice of Silence” and also the recent migration of peoples.
In the exhibition, two large ceramic and steel sculptures - ‘Voice” and ‘Injustice of Silence” - seem to speak MLK’s words in matter and mass. They appear as visible manifestations of that phenomena which are now here to be seen, and which must be seen, because they are evident in society. New ceramic and glass Fire Paintings also evoke architectural edifices that radiate the appearance of light. These could represent fire, the intensity of sunlight or the transcendence and mystery of starlight. Other Fire Paintings incorporate biomorphic twigs (impressed into wet clay) which suggest running, fleeing and stumbling peoples, racing across landscapes and cultures, overcoming boundaries and scaling walls, or in the spirit-realm floating in luminous voids. Yet others appear to be robed standing figures as if they were gathered at prayer, supplicating and showing their faces while harkening back to past histories, aspiring toward a more perfect future.
Tony Moore is represented in international museum collections including the Guggenheim and Brooklyn Museums. He received a MFA in Sculpture from Yale University and is the recipient of prestigious awards, including a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award. After 25 years of making sculptures and paintings in NYC, Moore relocated to the scenic Hudson River Valley near Cold Spring, NY where on a mountain top property he built a spacious studio, gallery and Japanese style Anagama-Noborigama wood-fire kiln. His unique ceramic sculptures are fired four times a year in weeklong communal events. http://www.TonyMooreArt.com.
