Artist Statement
My series of work, Detouched is a collection of abstract portraits. My professional work as a digital photo-retoucher, which involves eliminating imperfections such as blemishes, shadows, dust, and other “unsavory” elements in photographic portraits, influenced this series. The final works are created from the physical “flaws” that one uses to define oneself—wrinkles, moles, blemishes, and stray hairs—which are often removed from commercial portraits. In my series each face is digitally erased except for these imperfections, which now seem to float in a white void. This new configuration no longer bears any facial resemblance. Instead it suggests a celestial body, revealing connections between one’s own physical markings and those of the cosmos, perhaps foreshadowing a state beyond death.
This series culminated in my first solo project in New York, at Mixed Greens Gallery in January of 2010. I displayed a glowing 9 x 21-foot window installation titled Where I End and You Begin #3. I had photographed the faces of twenty-four individuals—mounters, collectors, curators and artists—whom I met in the art world since moving to New York in 2007. With these fragmented portraits combined into one work, the resulting collection of stray marks is transformed into a final portrait. My “self-portrait” lives at the center of the piece and the other “portraits” spiral out. A solar system begins to take shape with the people I know best orbiting closest and those less familiar living at the outer fringe.
In 2010 I was awarded a Fellowship in Photography from the New York Foundation for the Arts for this work.
-Recent review in Time Out Chicago
http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/art-design/86889/about-face-at-thomas-robertello-gallery-art-review
Artist Bio / CV
EDUCATION
2007
MFA, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL
2004
BFA, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
SOLO PROJECTS & EXHIBITIONS
2010
Where I End and You Begin # 3
Mixed Greens Gallery, New York, NY
2009
Aggregates, Absurd Infinities and Absent Mindedness
AHN/VHS Gallery, Philadelphi, PA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2010
All in the Family
Islip Art Museum, East Islip, NY
About Face
Thomas Robertello Gallery, Chicago, IL
Artist of the Week
Pierogi 2000, Brooklyn, NY
2009
Living and Dreaming - AIM 29
Bronx Museum of Art, Bronx, NY
New American Talent 24
Arthouse, Austin, TX
Slide Slam
Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT
Gravity Buffs
Thomas Robertello Gallery, Chicago, IL
Tabula Rasa
Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ
Trace/Memory
Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL
2008
Video Dumbo
Galapagos Art Space, Brooklyn, NY
Art Futura
Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
The Bulletin Board
Center for Curatorial Studies, Hessel Museum, Bard, NY
Video Next Door
Ellen Curlee Gallery, St. Louis, MO
2007
ARTSTAR
SCOPE Art Fair, Miami, FL
Just Good Art
Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
OUR ARE
Gallery 2, Chicago, IL
2006
One Pull, One Yank, Three Jerks
Gallery X, Chicago, IL
The World Is Flat
Galerie Lifebomb, Berlin, Germany
2004
Born in the USA
Galerie Art One, Zurich, Switzerland
Alternative Processes
University Gallery, Jacksonville, FL
SELECTED AWARDS
2010
NYFA Fellowship
2009
BRIC Media Arts Fellowship
2008
Artist in the Marketplace 29
2007
Odyssey Travel Grant
2006
Union League Civic & Arts Foundation Grant
BIBLIOGRAPHY 2010
Weinberg, Lauren. “About Face.”
Time Out Chicago, Issue 279, July 1-7.
Dluzen, Robin. “About Face.”
Chicagoartmagazine.com, June 15.
2009
Weinberg, Lauren. “Gravity Buffs.”
Time Out Chicago, Issue 212, Mar 19-25.
Roulo, Robyn Farrell. “Realms of the Unreal.”
Artslant.com, Mar 8.
2007
Robinson, William. “Shooting Artstar II.”
Artnet.com, Nov. 2.
Trezzi, Nicola. “Artstar season II.”
Flashartonline.com, Nov 9.
