FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

 

Tommy Fitzpatrick:

Looking Up

 

September 2 – October 4, 2003

 

 

 

For his second New York solo exhibition, TOMMY FITZPATRICK’s new paintings continue to explore the language of architecture and its relationship to the painted surface.  FITZPATRICK focuses on the façades of many different types of architecture, giving each building a unique personality.  FITZPATRICK’s paintings merge aspects of illusionism and geometric abstraction into one image.  FITZPATRICK incorporates his own sense of color and its relationship to perception via optical mixing.

 

Each painting represents a different aspect of modern corporate society: the roller coaster at the New York-New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, the skywalk at Enron headquarters in Houston, the Prayer Tower at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, and the Bank of New York on Park Avenue in New York are some of the structures portrayed.  In each of the paintings, the point of view is one of looking up at the building; architecture plays the dominant role and creates the form.  Many of the paintings present foreground elements that create a greater sense of depth.

 

Each architectural image is illusionistic and at the same time flat and geometric.  FITZPATRICK works from photographs and constructs each painting using tape and acrylic paint. The viewer participates in the perceptual construction of each image by connecting the tonal relationships. With small color units FITZPATRICK is able to maintain an optical tension that exposes the perceptual relationship of the parts to the whole.

 

Born in Texas, FITZPATRICK received his M.F.A. from Yale University, New Haven, CT, in 1993.  His work is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.  He currently lives and works in Dallas.

 

The exhibition will be on view at the Charles Cowles Gallery at 537 West 24th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues in Chelsea.  Hours are 10am to 6pm, Tuesday through Saturday.  There will be a reception for the artist on Wednesday, September 10, from 6-8 pm.

For further information or photographs, please contact the gallery.

 

Above image: Roller Coaster, Las Vegas, 2003, acrylic on canvas, 75 x 50 inches