Adrian Tone “Shoeshine Punch”

Elizabeth Houston Gallery

poster for Adrian Tone “Shoeshine Punch”
[Image: Adrian Tone "Untitled 111015" (2015) acrylic on watercolor paper, 60.5 x 56 in. photo by Serry Park]

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Elizabeth Houston Gallery presents Shoeshine Punch, a solo exhibition by Adrian Tone.

Titled after the boxing technique, a shoeshine punch combination is a flurry of small punches emphasized by speed. Popularized by Sugar Ray Leonard, the shoeshine punch sets the stage for a final knockout. Quickly and spontaneously creating marks, Adrian Tone similarly takes a series of fast and deliberate movements to ultimately create his dramatic effect: large scale abstractions com­prised of complex textures and shifting intensities of color.

Transforming existing forms to generate new ones and brusquely layering materials with rag ap­plications, Tone achieves organic shapes and metallic passages that challenge conventional ideas of compo­sition. Often off-center or escaping the confinement of the paper, the subject matter of each piece delivers an unidentifiable, yet captivating series of overpaintings.

In Untitled 11015, iridescent ground pigments and graph­ite work together to form a richness in blue values which seamlessly transition between the painting’s planes. Cor­ners extending past the paper’s boundaries, establish a sense of movement and suspension in time. Not unlike Lynda Benglis’ physicality of forms, gestural folds and darkened areas appear as portals that achieve transcen­dent depths, while the wide array of materials render paint qualities present as something derived from nature

Through combining slate pigments with iridescence, Tone establishes a dichotomy between industrial and naturally occur­ring substances. Using ground-up tires and spray paint, Tone pairs biomorphism with unexpected and synthetic materials. The inclusion of text in Untitled 121515 creates an intentional
barrier between the piece and the viewer, adding an addi­tional layer of surface tension and a sense of introspection.

Inspired by the appropriation of text as subject matter by both Christopher Wool and Wendy White, Tone displays his text backwards. Alluding to ur­ban influences of his past series and giving a nod to graffiti street art, Tone draws the viewer to the unusual configurations of his letters rather than just a literal in­terpretation of the word’s meaning. The result oscillates between verbal communication and pure imagery: is it a direction? a political statement? is this all that is left?

Simultaneously embracing and rejecting the expres­sive potential and formal traditions of painting, Shoesh­ine Punch addresses dystopian ideas, cataclysm, and increasingly common environmental disasters. Equally dark and bright, the series portrays the process of es­caping a difficult situation and observing the aftermath. Glimmers of light through the heavy coloration show a hopefulness looking forward. On view thru April 3.

Adrian Tone attended The Chicago Institute of Art and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2006. He later went on to earn a Masters of Fine Art in Painting from the Pratt Institute. In July 2015, Adrian was awarded a New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship Grant for painting. Born in Bucharest, Romania, Adrian now lives in works in Brooklyn, New York.

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Schedule

from January 27, 2016 to April 03, 2016

Opening Reception on 2016-01-28 from 18:00 to 20:00

Artist(s)

Adrian Tone

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