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Indepth Arts News:
"Tony Brown : Unfold"
2010-04-13 until 2010-05-18
Nicoletta Rusconi
Milano, ,
IT Italy
Nicoletta Rusconi will open her new space in Corso Venezia, Milan, with a solo exhibition by the American artist Tony Brown (b. Louisiana 1970, lives and works in Los Angeles).
Brown's interest is focused on the relationship between sculpture and image. His work involves the recycling of discarded objects and materials that the artist finds in his immediate environment and then transforms into two-dimensional sculptural compositions. For the artist, these objects already constitute an idea of representation: "If I'm working on a piece that has a lot of dimensionality to it, I tend to flatten it out and push it in the image direction and in may even inset objects into the surface of the work to further enhance this effect."
With evident references to the two-dimensionality of painting, Brown states: ‘I think of my collage or inlay works as my flattest sculpture.’
This type of consideration, which is central to his work, is not limited to his sculptures. It also regards his collages, which are treated sculpturally, too, and should be seen as inlays of the pages of old newspapers and magazines that have been put aside and then reworked: ‘I regard my collages or “inlays” as my flattest sculptures.’
Brown’s work switches continually between the sculptural dimension of the object and the world of two-dimensional representation in an attempt to nullify distances and to question the distinctiveness of each specific artistic language. His aim is to create a hybrid work, on the borderline: a new type of image, in other words.
For his first solo exhibition at the Galleria Nicoletta Rusconi, the artist will present a large work entitled Tree Installation, consisting of eighty stylized drawings of a type of ficus tree very common in the Los Angeles area mounted in old window frames found in the street, new sculptures made of wood and other materials, and twelve collages.
Tony Brown was born in Louisiana in 1970. When still a child, he moved with his mother and father (a former nun and monk) and sister to Colorado. Until the age of twelve he lived in various communities, and then he moved with his mother and sister to a strongly spiritual community run by a lay organization. In 1982 he moved to Hawaii, where he lived until 1994, obtaining a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. In 2000 he graduated with a master of fine arts degree from California State University, Long Beach. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
The exhibition, which will be accompanied by a critical essay by Milovan Farronato, will remain open until 18 May 2010.
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