Art and Architecture: The Times | Fred Tomaselli, Lawrence Weschler | Art and Literature Series Event

May 28, 2014

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FREE - Berger Forum doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Artist Fred Tomaselli discusses his striking new book, Fred Tomaselli: The Times, with author Lawrence Weschler.  They explore the artist’s politically charged series of work and the process of developing this new book

In this brilliant time capsule of recent world events, celebrated artist Fred Tomaselli intrepidly and colorfully reimagines the front pages of the New York Times. A self-proclaimed news junkie, Fred Tomaselli has been responding to the earth-shattering events of the past decade through a fascinating series of artworks collected in this book for the first time. Tomaselli superimposes his signature psychedelic aesthetic on the front page of the New York Times, setting up a striking contrast between the paper’s sober depictions of reality and his vivid interventions. Readers will delight in comparing the actual headlines, captions, and articles that surround the images with Tomaselli’s trippy, highly detailed interpretations. Filled with gorgeous reproductions of works that range from tongue-in-cheek satire to unmitigated outrage, this timely volume is certain to appeal to art lovers as well as street-smart consumers of today’s headline news.

Copies of the book are available for purchase and signing at the event after the audience Q&A.

Apr. 25, 2011, 2011 p. 93; Gouache and archival inkjet print on watercolor paper; 8½ × 11 in. (21.6 × 27.9 cm); Private collection, Minneapolis, Minnesota. © 2014 by Fred Tomaselli
Apr. 25, 2011, 2011, p. 93; gouache and archival inkjet print on watercolor paper; 8 x11 in. (21.6 x27.9 cm); private collection, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Copyright 2014 by Fred Tomaselli

Fred Tomaselli explores reality dislocation and the broken dreams of utopianism in colorful, complex works that utilize painting, photo collage, newsprint and unorthodox materials. His work has most recently been the subject of a solo project at the Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth Texas and was included in the Adelaide International. In 2010, his work was the subject of a 25-year survey that originated at the Aspen Art Museum, which then traveled to the Tang Teaching Museum and ended at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. His work has been shown in museums and galleries around the world including Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Site Santa Fe, The Fruitmarket Gallery, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, The Rose Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art, The MCA in Sydney, The Mori Art Museum and the Albright Knox Gallery. In 2014, his NY Times works will be the subject of solo shows at the University of Michigan Art Museum and the Orange County Art Museum. In addition, his large scale paintings will be featured at the Smithsonian Museum’s Birds of a Feather: Avian Imagery in Contemporary Art. He lives and works in Brooklyn and is represented by New York's James Cohan Gallery and London's White Cube Gallery.

Lawrence Weschler was for over twenty years (1981-2002) a staff writer at The New Yorker, where his work shuttled between political tragedies and cultural comedies. He recently graduated to director emeritus of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU, where he was director from 2001-2013.  He is also the artistic director emeritus, still actively engaged, with the Chicago Humanities Festival, and curator for the New York Live Ideas Festival. His books of political reportage include The Passion of Poland (1984); A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers (1990); and Calamities of Exile: Three Nonfiction Novellas (1998). His “Passions and Wonders” series currently comprises Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin (1982); David Hockney’s Cameraworks (1984); Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder (1995); A Wanderer in the Perfect City: Selected Passion Pieces (1998) Boggs: A Comedy of Values  (1999); Vermeer in Bosnia (2004); and Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences (2006). Mr. Wilson was shortlisted for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Everything that Rises received the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. Recent books include a considerably expanded edition of Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, a companion volume, True to Life: Twenty Five Years of Conversation with David Hockney; and his latest collection Uncanny Valley: Adventures in the Narrative. He is a contributing editor to McSweeney’s, the Threepeeny Review, and The Virginia Quarterly Review. He recently launched "Pillow of Air", a monthly “Amble through the worlds of the visual” column in The Believer.

Conceived and organized by Arezoo Moseni, and in its fifth year, Art and Literature Series events bring forth pollinations across the literary and visual arts with readings and discussions by acclaimed artists, authors and poets.