Opening Reception: Friday, April 10, 5 – 7 PM
Tom Ferrara | Dualities | Clifford B. West Gallery | Artist talk: Friday, April 17, 5:30-6:30 PM
Exhibition Statement | The structures at the heart of Tom Ferrara’s new paintings are grid and architectural variations. Combined with natural elements suggesting figurative and animal forms, they make up the fabric of this work and are a fundamental part of the drama. These paintings are energized and have a kind of electricity produced by movement and color dynamics. The interaction of light and dark, hot and cold, sweet and sour, harmony and dissonance— these are the dualities that bring them to life. The imagery itself is related to writing, hieroglyphs, graffiti, and rock art as much as it is to traditional painting. The elemental narrative found in rock art is something that can transcend time and culture. The narrative in these paintings is inspired by the promise and perils of life in the 21st century.
Biography | Tom Ferrara was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1953. He studied art and architecture at the University of Maryland and Montgomery College, 1971-1975. He worked as a studio assistant to Willem de Kooning, East Hampton, NY, 1979-1987. Exhibited with the Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery, NYC 1986-2012, with work in national and international collections. Ferrara taught at the National Academy of Design, NYC, 2008-2012. He has taught in the Studio Art Department at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, since 2005. Ferrara currently lives in Vermont.
Artist Statement | Painting is a vehicle for the realization of something undefined. Less a product of thought or reason, it falls more into the realm of emotion and intuition. Intuition is our collective reservoir of truth. It’s the impression left by a vast history and experience waiting to emerge and reveal something precious and vital. Reaching for a defining image of substance and spirit is the artist’s challenge. The hope is to find clarity when it becomes real.