Fred Tomaselli. Second Nature

About

For Fred Tomaselli, the natural beauty and fantasy culture of his native Southern California have always inspired and informed his explorations in life and in art. A Cal State University Fullerton graduate (BA, 1982, Painting and Drawing), Tomaselli has lived and worked in New York since 1985, where he developed his trademark style: crafting mashups of explosive and hallucinatory images and patterns into resin paintings that suspend collaged and hand-painted elements within layers of clear resin. The tension wrought by his fusion of materials and ideas is seductive and unnerving. Through his work, Tomaselli wrestles with the calamities of the moment: the pandemic, police brutality, race relations, climate emergency and other pressing issues. The results are pointed towards the full spectrum of 20th– and 21st-century life, from its ugliness to what is absolutely sublime. Fred Tomaselli: Second Nature features nearly 50 new and recent works that highlight the varied and wide-ranging intersections of art, nature, popular culture and current events that run through his practice. Tomaselli’s resin paintings will be presented alongside selections from his New York Times series—marking the start and progression of the Coronavirus and the worldwide pandemic it caused. Drawing on and altering the front pages of the daily newspaper, these works mark the passage of time and document in diaristic fashion the urgent issues of the days, weeks and months unfolding throughout the world.