Van Vessem Gallery Presents "Shock and Awe and Other Delights"

On May 9, prepare to be shocked, awed and delighted at Van Vessem Gallery in Tiverton.

The gallery, located at 63 Muse Way, is presenting a “powerful and timely solo show in which Rhode Island visual artist Tom Culora uses anonymous images from the Internet to explore notions of identity, gender, race, and international security,” according to a release.

An opening reception with the artist is scheduled for Saturday, May 9th, from 5 to 8 p.m.

The exhibit is a compendium of work executed over the past three years, and includes a multiple panel mixed media installation (“Shock & Awe”) depicting audience reactions to the Beatles’ first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show; large panel paintings and lightbox constructions drawn from images of female militia forces (PLA) participating in the 2010 Chinese Military Parade; and Motherboard paintings of anonymous people on the Internet.

“Following the art historic line of late 19th century and 20th century artists who presented ‘everyday people’ as a lens into the zeitgeist of the era, this work shuns the celebrity obsession that has developed over the past several decades and instead focuses on the anonymous faces that define the current age,” Culora said.

Pairing the post-modern practice of sampling images with traditional large format oil painting as well as mixed media constructions using lightboxes, computer motherboards, and other materials, Culora’s work is intended to isolate and uncover transitory moments and expressions that provide insight into not the subjects as individuals but as barometers of a broader collective whole. The images are all drawn from posted videos rather than still images. This gives Culora greater freedom to select, edit, isolate, frame, and scale the images that have the most relevance for the issues he is exploring.

Unlike portraiture or depictions of celebrities and personalities whose lives are known, these subjects’ personal narratives are unknown and anonymous by their nature.

“While the work is primarily intended to use the images in an extended observation and commentary on selected social, cultural, and security issues, the effect of employing images of anonymous people, whatever the source, has the unintended effect on me as the artist of forcing a personal internal dialogue while creating the work - driven by the choice of images, my own reaction to the image, and the manner in which the images are presented. This then becomes a curious and revelatory experience about my own identity as well as the anonymous people portrayed in the work,” Culora said.

Tom Culora is a visual artist based in Rhode Island. His work explores the reconciliation of post-modernism with traditional figurative art. Based on Internet video images, he explores issues of privacy and a culture that promotes the public revelation of private thoughts and vulnerabilities while addressing issues of aesthetics and iconography. He uses traditional oils on hardboard and multi-media constructions and installations using quotidian objects and elements of photography. Culora is a BFA graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York. He was also a former US Navy pilot, ship captain, and strategic advisor and planner. He holds two master’s degrees in International Relations and in Strategic Studies, and has been a fellow at Harvard University in Boston and at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

www.tomculora.com