Tommy Fitzpatrick “Landmark”

David Richard Gallery

poster for Tommy Fitzpatrick “Landmark”
[Image: Tommy Fitzpatrick "Landmark" (2022) Acrylic on canvas over panel 70 x 50 in.]

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David Richard Gallery presents Landmark, an exhibition by Texas-based artist Tommy Fitzpatrick and his first solo presentation with the gallery in New York. The exhibition is comprised of ten of Fitzpatrick’s most recent paintings all dating from 2022.

At a moment when the average rent prices in Manhattan just hit a record high of $5,142 1, Fitzpatrick’s paintings seem all the more relevant. Following in the conceptual footsteps of Dan Graham’s seminal photo essay Homes for America (1966-1967), Fitzpatrick’s paintings depict stylized domestic architecture, comprised of paired down forms and executed with brightly colored bold geometric planes. They are rendered in thick layers of paint, with deftly troweled edges of drastically differing depths of surface impasto, which may vary up to over a quarter of an inch. Abandoning the brush for the trowel Fitzpatrick’s distinct hulking surfaces are workman like and more strongly resemble the hand of a seasoned mason than of a conventional painter. As such, one cannot help but grapple with the physical presence of the paintings themselves when they are encountered for the first time in person. Yet it is Fitzpatrick’s stirring depiction of domestic architecture that linger with the viewer leaving them to ask themselves, what is a home, and ponder the question, what will be the fate of suburban vernacular architecture in the wake of the speculative housing crisis and the subsequent greater economic fallout across America.

Fitzpatrick has maintained a lifelong fascination with architecture since growing up in a Dallas suburb. He was highly impacted by his time assisting Frank Stella with an installation of a mural in Houston, it led to the development of a painting practice which moved towards geometric compositions rendered in electric hues and embraced modernism in both form and content. Modernism’s strive for utopian ideals propelled architecture and the arts simultaneously, and Fitzpatrick’s current paintings seem concerned with the aspects of Modernism which are most widely recognized for their virtue.


“Things come and go, that is reflected in our architecture…
Buildings that were once a remarkable feat of their time go out of
style and are knocked down for the latest innovations. But there
seems to be a quality within certain buildings and landmarks that
acts as a universal commonality.2” -Tommy Fitzpatrick

Of course, in the pursuit of a profound purpose Modernism has had to contend with the inevitable realities of its dystopic failures and the impact on society at large. Many of Fitzpatrick’s paintings depict variations on a colonial style known as the saltbox. These homes are not necessarily known for their architectural excellence, rather they exemplify qualities of what Dan Graham has recognized is the case with most postwar domestic architecture.

“They exist apart from prior standards of “good” architecture. They
were not built to satisfy individual needs or tastes. The owner is
completely tangential to the product’s completion. His home
wasn’t really possessable in the old sense; it wasn’t ‘designed to
last for generations’; outside of its immediate ‘here and now’
context it is useless, designed to be thrown away. Both
architecture and craftsmanship as a value are subverted by
dependence on simplified and easily duplicated techniques
of fabrication and standardized modular plans.3”

- Dan Graham


However, the dystopic truth endures that these structures remain a fundamental necessity, a facet of survival for a modern non-nomadic society. And even with their ubiquitous quality they remain quintessentially American in their form and imbued with primacy in the sociological function they provide.

Fitzpatrick (b. 1969 in Dallas, Texas) currently lives and works in New Braunfels, Texas, and is a Professor and Head of Painting at the Texas State University in San Marcos. He earned his BA from The University of Texas at Austin, and his MFA from Yale University School of Art. He has won numerous awards including, the Winsor Newton Oil Bar Limited Prize from Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT given in recognition of outstanding work in painting and printmaking. He has shown extensively throughout the United States and abroad, including over 20 solo exhibitions including Miro Gallery, San Jose, CA; Inman Gallery, Houston, TX; Johnson Gallery, Dallas, TX; Michael Schultz Gallery, Seoul, Korea; Charles Cowles Gallery, New York, NY; and Schultz Contemporary, Berlin, Germany. His paintings are in the public collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston as well as the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

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Schedule

from February 14, 2023 to March 10, 2023

Opening Reception on 2023-02-16 from 17:00 to 20:00

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