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Artist Exhibitions:
ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2007 Axis Gallery,
Sacramento, CA
2005 James Snidle Fine Art,
San Francisco, CA
Pence Gallery, Davis, CA
2004 James Snidle Fine Arts,
Chico, CA
2003 Triton Museum, Santa
Clara, CA
2002 Crocker Museum,
Sacramento, CA
2001 Oakland Museum Downtown
Sculpture Court, Oakland, CA
2000 Jglen Gallery, Davis...
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Artist Galleries:
Coming Soon!
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Artist Reviews:
Art: Now and then, the 1700s
Crocker pairs long-dead
engraver, living sculptor who
share a theme
By Victoria Dalkey -- Bee Art
Correspondent
(Published 6:40 a.m. PST
Friday, Jul. 26, 2002
Crocker Art Museum
Separated by a couple of
hundred years, a pair of
artists whose works are ...
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Collections:
Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA *
Laguna Art Museum, Laguna, CA
* Crocker Art Museum,
Sacramento, CA *Triton Museum
of Art, CA *Tower Corporation,
West Sacramento, CA *Ceramics
Monthly, Columbus, OH *
University of CA at Davis *
Byron Meyer, San Francisco, CA
* Mr. & Mrs. Turk, Palo Alto,
CA * Mr. & Mrs. Rabinowitz,
Massachusetts * Daniel Jacobs,
...
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Commissions:
2000- Private commission to
create a large bust portrait
of Miles Davis for L.A.
Collector.
1999- Private commission to
create a large bust portrait
of Babe Ruth for Sacramento
Collector.
1996- Corporate commission
granted by the Hahn Corp. to
place six over life size
figures in fiberglass at the
...
Further Information
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Artist Statement for Tony Natsoulas
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Each summer as a child, my parents took me to New York City to visit our relatives. One of the great side effects of this was me being able to be exposed to the incredible art galleries and museums of the big apple. I can remember the impact on me when viewing the Pop art that was being shown at the Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum, The MET, and The Guggenheim Museum. Claus Oldenberg, and George Segal’s work stand out in my mind as the most inspirational. In grade school we had field trips to our local Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, CA, where I would see David Gilhooly’s ceramic work for the first time. I never forgot the piece that struck a chord in me, wetting my appetite for art and all of its endless possibilities. David Gilhooly’s piece was of a ceramic casserole dish with a frog goddess of fertility in it. Lots of breasts adorned the frog goddess and I was now hooked! After that, I was stuck on art and wanted to learn more about it. I started dabbling in clay at the age of 11 in summer school and have not put it down since.
I started making large ceramic sculptures in high school. My teacher was impressed with the work I was doing and recommended that I take concurrent classes at the local college, which was the University of California at Davis. At that time, a man was teaching there who would change my life and give me the incentive to pursue my art as a career. His name was Robert Arneson. After taking two classes with Bob in high school and having my eyes opened to art, I graduated from Davis High School and went to Sacramento State University where I took ceramic classes from Bob Brady. In 1979, I transferred back to University of California at Davis and got my Bachelor of Arts from there in 1982. I was so very fortunate to have been able to study and take classes from the cream of the crop of fine artists, such as Roy de Forrest, Wayne Thiebaud, and Manuel Neri and other prestigious artists. They all not only were very successful in their teaching professions, but working and showing artists as well which was a great role model for me. I then went to Maryland Institute, College of Art, for graduate school for a different perspective. Being homesick for sunny California and the art department at Davis, I came back to University of California at Davis and got my Master in Fine Arts in 1984. During my school days and for many years after that time I had been working on life size figurative ceramic sculptures. I concentrated on form and gesture not realism. I wanted the pieces to stand on the floor on their own two feet, drawing in their viewers, demanding a presence to be interacted with. I want the viewer to be able to interpret whatever they like into each sculpture, even though I had an idea about what each one was to mean when sculpting them. I worked out all my feelings and thoughts in the clay based on social issues, phobias, struggles from within and political satire. When I got out of grad school, I was asked to be in the Rena Bransten gallery in San Francisco, where I had two successful shows. Since then I have been in museum and gallery exhibitions all around the world. Also over these years, I have been busy doing public and private commissions in clay, bronze, and fiberglass.
Like most artists, I start off my work with an inspiration. Inspiration is a very elusive thing. Absurd television shows, people, commercials, toys, cartoons, plays and movies that are nostalgic inspire me the most. I also look at other artists for inspiration such as Robert Arneson, Clayton Bailey, Red Grooms, David Gilhooly, Big Daddy Roth, and Arthur Gonzalez to name a few. Recently I have been concentrating on larger than life exaggerated ceramic busts of people that have inspired me on many different levels. For example, as a child I watched a television show entitled the Honeymooners. It stared Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden an over weight; loud and very opinionated man who was married to Audrey Meadows that played his wife Alice. During the days that this program aired women were portrayed as mothers, wives and happy homemakers. They had no opinions, made no fuss and
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