TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pg1. - Table of contents
CONTACT INFO: Links, Announcements - Current Exhibitions
Price Lists, Resume, Interviews, contact #’s, Statements….
CROSSROADS ANNOUNCEMENT
STUDIO CIVALE ADDRESS
WCNY STUDIO EXHIBITION INFO
PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZON AUCTION ADDRESS
IMAGES: ( NOT IN Alphabetical order)
1- DREAMT BACKWARD
2- FIELD THEORIES
3- UNLESS
COLLAGES AND THINGS
4- CIRCUMSTANCE
5- SUBJECTIVE TRUTH
6- OBVIOUS
7- REASONABLE DOUBT
8- BONE
9- BLUE
10- STAGE ONE
11- STAGE TWO
12- INFERENCE
13- ASIDE
14- ONE
15- BETWEEN
16- STRANGE SHADOWS
17- UNTITLED
18- MAN
19- PASSING
20- ANIMAL
21- UNLESS(DETAIL)
22- BLACK HEARTS
23- HERE AFTER
24- BRAMBLE, BRAMBLE
25- UNTIL
PAGE 2.
26- RISING
27- WEST OF EDEN
28- POISONWOOD
29- ROLEPLAY(CROSSROADS)
30- BLOGGING(AS IT COMES)
31- PROTEN EYE
32- WANDERER
PAGE 3.
33- DELUGE
34- FATHER’S HOUSE
35- CONFESSIONS
36- ACT OF
37- UNDER TONES
WORK FROM 2000 - 2007
38- COMPOSITION III
(INTENTIONS WRITTEN)
PHOTO (YOURS TRULY)
*NOTES
39- STRANGE FRUIT
EMAIL
WORKS FROM 06-07
40- MEMORY PALACE
41- WHITE NOISE
42- THRESHOLD
43- SWAYED
44- COLLIDE
45- SUNYATA
46- OTHERS
PAGE 4.
47- STORY LINE(A FINE BALANCE)
48- UNDER THE ‘R7’
LAST OF THE 8’ PAINTINGS
49- FLEET
50- MOST OF THE TIME
REMNANTS - NEXT GALLERY
51- CHANGE OF HEART
52- BETWEEN US
53- BI-PARTISANS
54- UNTIL HEAVEN
VERTICALS
55- BLOW-UP
56- LIMBO
57- OF FICTION
58- ASPHYX
59- SOLO
60- FAMILY
61- EXPOSED
62- GENETICS
Friday, April 6, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
INTERVIEW
Where do you see your art in 10 years? What are your plans?
Maybe doing Matisse Cut Outs...or some Lyrical deKooningesk large paintings...or my theory on Rothko realized where i become part of the fabric of the work itself...to escape the society at chaotic large...
no really do not make plans like that...the idea of discovery trumps planning....
Discuss one of your pieces (and send me an image of it.).
I am gonna close my eyes and pick random....ok looks like...
“UNDER THE ‘R’ 7”
“UNDER THE ‘R’ 7”
LIKE IN THE START OF MOST PAINTINGS ... I HAVE EVOLVED OR DEVOLVED TO A PLACE WHERE I GO BLANK.
The objectives in my work are always the same: to recognize the things that continue to evolve and thrill me in this life such as: balance and imbalance, persisting ambiguities, understatement, open spaces, unresolved endings, continuous questioning, the truths in contradiction, palimpsests, illegible markings, graffiti, old, re-varnished wooden school desks, active, rusting surfaces, worn away names/dates on grave stones, old ships, walls, etc.; to harness these things in the energy of the paint and to trust then that the work expresses who I am and where I am at present.
What is your artistic process?
Painting is something that continues to fill me with wonder and awe. It is a process not unlike like being an archeologist discovering found objects that send you reeling back and forth through time. Everyday it brings you closer to your mortality; demands that you face yourself for better or for worse; teaches you to accept and cherish loss as an indelible element of time; the unmitigated truth of it as well as its horror and its beauty.
Why did you choose the medium(s) that you use?
Smelled my Uncles studio ( Domenick Turturro ), which was an abandoned Synagogue on Henry street in the 60’s and 70’s. I smelled pastels and turpentine and oil paint and I was hooked...from probably around 10 years of age.
Do you have a degree or do you plan to attend school for art?
I have several degrees. University of Wisconsin at Madison - on Football scholarship ( only badger that was an Art major) did my Masters at Pratt in Brooklyn and attended Post Graduate classes for Teaching degree at Queens and Brooklyn College respectively. I have been painting for 30 years.
Where can we see more of your art? Are you involved with other websites?
Do you have a personal website?
http://www.ralphturturro.com/
All addresses below are sites where one can find images and words about my work:
http://ralph-turturros-stuff.blogspot.com/
C:\My Documents\A - sites\ArtistSites_org Art of Ralph Turturro.htm
C:\My Documents\A - sites\Cortland Artists.htm
C:\My Documents\A - sites\Pidjin Featured Artist of the Month -Ralph Turturro!.htm
C:\My Documents\A - sites\Ralph Turturro on artnet.htm
C:\My Documents\A - sites\Ralph Turturro - Artist Search Results.htm
C:\My Documents\A - sites\Ralph Turturro - Art for sale.htm
all the sites above have images and various writings of mine in regard to my work...they are a mixed bag from different time periods...most recent is:
C:\My Documents\A - sites\ArtistSites_org Art of Ralph Turturro.htm
Are you represented by a gallery? If not, do you want to be?
Yes I would like to be represented and have my work sold for the best prices. Of course I would. As long as I can continue to work...
Presently I am a one man band...trying to do all aspects....
I show my work on the streets of So-Ho. This has allowed me to make contacts , have shows, films, Architectural Digest, sales all over the world as well as have a community of artist from all walks of life come together and have a dialogue.
But still I am selling...and it takes from the time to be working at the work....
My work does appear in 1/2 dozen galleries Nationally and Internationally.
Do I really need this to happen?
Don't think so.
Galleries are often short sighted and thinking of their over head which is understandable.
If Artists ran the galleries I believe I would be well represented.
How many pieces have you sold in your career?
Many.
Why do you create art?
Because it is there waiting for me.
Maybe doing Matisse Cut Outs...or some Lyrical deKooningesk large paintings...or my theory on Rothko realized where i become part of the fabric of the work itself...to escape the society at chaotic large...
no really do not make plans like that...the idea of discovery trumps planning....
Discuss one of your pieces (and send me an image of it.).
I am gonna close my eyes and pick random....ok looks like...
“UNDER THE ‘R’ 7”
“UNDER THE ‘R’ 7”
TRUST THE PROCESS - WILL SEND YOU OFF INTO THAT zone.....so then ideally each step is new is discovery...I enjoy to make marks and write ideas and parts of literature or songs or poems into the surfaces...my aesthetic of old desks and walls in a courtyard...that show passage of time...this thrills me...so I layer and write and brush and scrape and allow things to happen...try not to fight it...go with it...recognize when something is working or not...all this happened while working on 'UNDER THE R 7'....'TITLE' grew out of marks and letters and images that happened during this process...and I liked the enigmatic-ness of the sound of the title...was perfect for this piece...it worked...
The ultimate goal, however, is for discovery, where when the work is done, you are as viewer, discovering these texts and textures for the first time as if you had nothing to do with them but to appreciate the ability to recognize and embrace.
What were you thinking when you created it?
The ultimate goal, however, is for discovery, where when the work is done, you are as viewer, discovering these texts and textures for the first time as if you had nothing to do with them but to appreciate the ability to recognize and embrace.
What were you thinking when you created it?
The objectives in my work are always the same: to recognize the things that continue to evolve and thrill me in this life such as: balance and imbalance, persisting ambiguities, understatement, open spaces, unresolved endings, continuous questioning, the truths in contradiction, palimpsests, illegible markings, graffiti, old, re-varnished wooden school desks, active, rusting surfaces, worn away names/dates on grave stones, old ships, walls, etc.; to harness these things in the energy of the paint and to trust then that the work expresses who I am and where I am at present.
What is your artistic process?
Why did you choose the medium(s) that you use?
Smelled my Uncles studio ( Domenick Turturro ), which was an abandoned Synagogue on Henry street in the 60’s and 70’s. I smelled pastels and turpentine and oil paint and I was hooked...from probably around 10 years of age.
Do you have a degree or do you plan to attend school for art?
I have several degrees. University of Wisconsin at Madison - on Football scholarship ( only badger that was an Art major) did my Masters at Pratt in Brooklyn and attended Post Graduate classes for Teaching degree at Queens and Brooklyn College respectively. I have been painting for 30 years.
Where can we see more of your art? Are you involved with other websites?
Do you have a personal website?
http://www.ralphturturro.com/
All addresses below are sites where one can find images and words about my work:
http://ralph-turturros-stuff.blogspot.com/
C:\My Documents\A - sites\ArtistSites_org Art of Ralph Turturro.htm
C:\My Documents\A - sites\Cortland Artists.htm
C:\My Documents\A - sites\Pidjin Featured Artist of the Month -Ralph Turturro!.htm
C:\My Documents\A - sites\Ralph Turturro on artnet.htm
C:\My Documents\A - sites\Ralph Turturro - Artist Search Results.htm
C:\My Documents\A - sites\Ralph Turturro - Art for sale.htm
all the sites above have images and various writings of mine in regard to my work...they are a mixed bag from different time periods...most recent is:
C:\My Documents\A - sites\ArtistSites_org Art of Ralph Turturro.htm
Are you represented by a gallery? If not, do you want to be?
Yes I would like to be represented and have my work sold for the best prices. Of course I would. As long as I can continue to work...
Presently I am a one man band...trying to do all aspects....
I show my work on the streets of So-Ho. This has allowed me to make contacts , have shows, films, Architectural Digest, sales all over the world as well as have a community of artist from all walks of life come together and have a dialogue.
But still I am selling...and it takes from the time to be working at the work....
My work does appear in 1/2 dozen galleries Nationally and Internationally.
None have made the commitment to represent me.
Do I really need this to happen?
Don't think so.
Galleries are often short sighted and thinking of their over head which is understandable.
If Artists ran the galleries I believe I would be well represented.
However the reality is that showing in the right Galleries would be helpful to an artist's career no matter what I think.
How many pieces have you sold in your career?
Many.
Why do you create art?
Because it is there waiting for me.
....to see final edited edition of this interview go to :
Contact Numbers, Exhibition Announcements, Links and Email....Art Statements
(607) 753-7934 Home
(607) 423-3476 Cell
(607) 656-4161 ex-312
A NEW OPEN STUDIO EXHIBITION:
‘CROSSROADS’
NEW WORK BY RALPH TURTURRO
OPENING MARCH 30TH 5PM-9PM
SHOW RUNS FROM MARCH 30th THROUGH APRIL 20th
At The‘STUDIO GALLERY’117 HOMER AVE.CORTLAND, NEW YORK
The ‘STUDIO GALLERY’ is located at the crossroads of Homer Ave. and West Main streets in Cortland.
GALLERY HOURS: TUES. - THURS. – 4 – 8PM WEEKENDS BY APPOINTMENTFOR FURTHER INFO CALL: C# 607 - 423 - 3476 OR H# 607 - 753-7934
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
‘Crossroads’ signifies, for me, a place, a spot, a state of being where the work at present continues to find itself. My most recent paintings, more than any other time before, mirror the crossroads I am experiencing in my life.To depart from some instance or happening in my waking life, in a consistent manner, each time I approach a painted surface, with the intention to somehow discover what is to be saved from that experience is in essence the objective of the work at hand.I am finding a connectivity, in the process of working, that responds to both inner and outer stimuli. Outwardly, I have in my life, as well as my observations and readings, been drawn to the dualities that emerge as creator and created. Of creating flesh and blood characters who live in conflict and contradiction - where does the life come from; from the author’s experience and observations or from the alchemy of the scratched surfaces; from inside; a self - perpetuating life?I on the other hand, in response to these other voices (authors – musicians – poets – thinkers), become as subject; identify by immersion into the depths of these characters as if I breath their air - from inside out they move.The experiences of books of fiction and non fiction have become one of the main sources of departure expressed in this new work.The ‘abstract nature of words’ have always attracted me - the layering of time and space; the structure that holds myriad emotional subtleties - what is said as well as what is not said.In my case it is the subtext , the ‘silent un spoken’ that fuels the imagery of this latest series of paintings.
also - some other links to current places to view Turturro's work:
Paintings displayed on new site below click on Turturro -
http://www.studiocivale.com/
Also:
art exhibition
april 10–july 9, 2007
The Artists, the Visual Arts Committee,
the Cultural Resources Council, and WCNY
invite you to attend the opening reception ofShowcase #59.
Reception:Friday, April 13, 2007,
6:00-8:00pmatWCNY Studios,
506 Old Liverpool Road, Liverpool,
NYfeaturing work by:
Ralph Turturro
and finally:
http://www.cmarket.com/catalog/landingPage.do?vhost=playwrightshorizons
Here you will find if you select "View Auction Catalog" Turturro's 'SUNYATA' IS UP FOR AUCTION!
E-mail: : rtmac571 23@yahoo.com/
STATEMENT - IN PROGRESS ( Updated – 08-26-2006 ):
The work is about trying to break through the physical to a world beyond that is more real . The color, texture, text and inadvertent images that grow out of the process of painting are the tools used to discover this world beyond. As of late I think of my work as one would consider the life of cells. They are real and exist despite their relative invisibility. Without them we could not exist. They hold in them, history, beauty, balance and wonder. They communicate with each other silently without explaining. They continue to evolve, mutate and produce life.
…streams of consciousness...along side of image...written words...letters - they're in my work - words and letters in a stream of conscious and unconsciousness...trusting the flow...discovering the uncompromising truths that belie the process of constant looking, drawing, administering, arranging ...composing...painting...it is one process among many that employ these universalities...that ideally can teach you to love, to accept, to have compassion and reverence....it is a process, at times, that can stop all time...make things clear, invite the spirit, bring back the awe of lost moments...rush ahead to the prophetic....at the same instance this process can make you giddy, and bent over with laughter...speaking to the absurdities; the underlying joy behind most things...the certainties, uncertainties, the ambiguities, the truths, the lies ....
I am drawn to rust and corrosion the way others are to flowers. Give me a graffiti wall; a stained sidewalk; a beaten-up old wooden school desk.... any day...
I have been looking at Joyce's 'Finnegan's Wake' for this past year, the sounds, the rhythms, the unpredictability of each word and their relationships...I appreciate each page for what ever I can draw from it...it humbles, it liberates, it beckons me to paint, to walk, to look, to discover...it strengthens my resolve to need not understand the mystery but to live it.
I paint with oils and Acrylics in particular Golden Acrylics and Mediums as well as waxes, sand, wood shavings, scraps of wood, canvas, other paintings, newspaper, cardboards, matt boards, magazines, and any other interesting surface builders I discover along the way. A piece of rusted crushed metal on the roadside is likely to find its way in one of my paintings.
LESS SAID
DICOVERING THE POWER OF VISUAL WRITING AND TEXTURE
NEXT GALLERY at MCNY SEPT. 5 - OCT. 27 2006
Painting is still something that continues to fill me with wonder and awe. It is like being an archeologist discovering found objects that send you reeling back and forth through time. Everyday it brings you closer to your mortality, demands that you face yourself for better or for worse, teaches you to accept and cherish loss; the unmitigated truth of it, the horror, the beauty...
Understated; Open Spaces; Unresolved Endings; Socratic Inquiry; The Inherent Truths in Contradiction; Things that make sense; Things that do not make sense; Palimpsests; Illegible Markings that can either be Letters or Figures on Active Surfaces, Worn away Names/Dates on Grave Stones, Old ships, Walls etc...these are some of the Texts and Textures that fuel the work ...need I say more...
Matisse said " Artist's (Painters) should cut out their tongues...”
STATEMENT - IN PROGRESS ( Updated – 10-20-2004 ):
The man at the Texas diner told me “our entire lives were merely images
stored on micro film since the time of Christ and that the Government
Stored this micro film”. The strange part of this is not that this man thought
these things and said these things but that I did not so easily dismiss them
and that even till this day, 20 years later, I still consider that there is something
to his story. Just the idea of possibility; of the outrageous; the impossible.
Like a painting, life often appears to have no concrete connection with our immediate flesh and blood reality. Life, like a painting in it’s micro and macro insurgencies continues to reinvent itself. Forge ahead as one reality after another.
Where do films exist? “ The Stepford Wives” exists in a can, in our minds in our culture…could it happen? Could Hitchcock’s “Psycho” happen? Psychos and Stepford like wives, unfortunately happen too often amongst our species. And Mankind, to deal with it turns it into ‘ART’, into a virtual space we call Film-Movie-Motion Picture - Photo – Paint - Art!
In the case of the Man in the Texas Diner it is a personal, obscure memory from my flesh and blood experience that has now transformed into what it is: this strange ephemeral dream like artifact that informs my curious nature; that makes it’s way into the virtual spaces of this writing. It makes me cynical but hopeful that anything could be true and that quite possibly everything we think is true, is not.
This gives me great cause to paint. To be filled with wonder on a regular basis. Especially when encountering things that are real. That reek of real. And then comparing them to what is accepted, almost common place –taken for granted, everyday real.
Our day to day lives are filled with fragmented bits of flawed facts, multi-medias, pseudo-knowledge and fleeting intuitions that “Abstraction” shouldn’t seem so foreign a word or at best, not be so categorized as it is. Most things we do have aspects of the meanings of this word – ABSTRACT
.
We dream and then forget and then have ‘De Ja Vu’ . We retell the dream or the De Ja Vu experience to friends at work. These are abstract events. One thing turns into another. A blow up of a small section of something till it becomes very far from it’s origin. Till it forgets it’s origin.
There is nothing more abstract than everyday life. The difficulty is in separating what is real from reality. It happens in micro and macro places of our cells, our brains, our homes and schools. One way to balance all this stimuli is to turn it into virtual space. Painting is one option.
PREVIOUS ARTIST’S STATEMENT: ca. 2001-2003
In the way that one might discover the innate beauty that exists within the colors of rust or a patina’d rock or a stain on ashphault or cement pavement that has that rightness of relationships and alchemy; that “Yaki Way” of finding the most, best position for sleep; in this way it is ‘Beauty’ that is the intention of my work…“ Beauty is Truth, Truth, Beauty” Keats
Discovering the beauty and rightness in every day life - in the oddest places - happens without planning. It compels me to see my life and my work moving together in a subjective time frame, responding to moments in a day of observations - stimulated by: conversations, music, road signs, lyrics, poems, etc. These experiences become inspirations to paint and while painting inspire departures to make marks, build textures, seize colors and images.
Ultimately I believe painting is not painting at all, it is seeing; it is a way of being in one’s life. Painting shows me what I am, where I am and what I understand. It is my perceptions and how they evolve over time. The biggest draw painting has to offer is that it sparks the way to what I’ve yet to see.
Abstract painting is the structure, the mode, the style which best conveys the experience of painting as real, not second to the experiences that inspired it. During the process of drawing, scratching, brushing, cementing, dropping and throwing, a trust and confidence builds; the paint begins to transform into a life on it’s own that has witnessed and been there and through something; a thing that has learned to organize itself through attrition, through a life system that is in and of itself “new’ and free of the artist’s will and hand.
Finally the subjective time frame is shed; trusting your life to this work; remaining open for the objective consciousness to take over and inadvertently a new, abstract narrative forms - a language, a visual language – about your life; one that is as enigmatic to me as it is to the viewer; one that becomes as many things to me as to the viewer– the ego is lessened, perspective changes and the work becomes ecstatic and more importantly the work becomes the ‘Experience’, ‘The Thing’ and the ‘Reality’. My only claim to the creation of a given work is having recognized it
(607) 423-3476 Cell
(607) 656-4161 ex-312
A NEW OPEN STUDIO EXHIBITION:
‘CROSSROADS’
NEW WORK BY RALPH TURTURRO
OPENING MARCH 30TH 5PM-9PM
SHOW RUNS FROM MARCH 30th THROUGH APRIL 20th
At The‘STUDIO GALLERY’117 HOMER AVE.CORTLAND, NEW YORK
The ‘STUDIO GALLERY’ is located at the crossroads of Homer Ave. and West Main streets in Cortland.
GALLERY HOURS: TUES. - THURS. – 4 – 8PM WEEKENDS BY APPOINTMENTFOR FURTHER INFO CALL: C# 607 - 423 - 3476 OR H# 607 - 753-7934
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
‘Crossroads’ signifies, for me, a place, a spot, a state of being where the work at present continues to find itself. My most recent paintings, more than any other time before, mirror the crossroads I am experiencing in my life.To depart from some instance or happening in my waking life, in a consistent manner, each time I approach a painted surface, with the intention to somehow discover what is to be saved from that experience is in essence the objective of the work at hand.I am finding a connectivity, in the process of working, that responds to both inner and outer stimuli. Outwardly, I have in my life, as well as my observations and readings, been drawn to the dualities that emerge as creator and created. Of creating flesh and blood characters who live in conflict and contradiction - where does the life come from; from the author’s experience and observations or from the alchemy of the scratched surfaces; from inside; a self - perpetuating life?I on the other hand, in response to these other voices (authors – musicians – poets – thinkers), become as subject; identify by immersion into the depths of these characters as if I breath their air - from inside out they move.The experiences of books of fiction and non fiction have become one of the main sources of departure expressed in this new work.The ‘abstract nature of words’ have always attracted me - the layering of time and space; the structure that holds myriad emotional subtleties - what is said as well as what is not said.In my case it is the subtext , the ‘silent un spoken’ that fuels the imagery of this latest series of paintings.
also - some other links to current places to view Turturro's work:
Paintings displayed on new site below click on Turturro -
http://www.studiocivale.com/
Also:
art exhibition
april 10–july 9, 2007
The Artists, the Visual Arts Committee,
the Cultural Resources Council, and WCNY
invite you to attend the opening reception ofShowcase #59.
Reception:Friday, April 13, 2007,
6:00-8:00pmatWCNY Studios,
506 Old Liverpool Road, Liverpool,
NYfeaturing work by:
Ralph Turturro
and finally:
http://www.cmarket.com/catalog/landingPage.do?vhost=playwrightshorizons
Here you will find if you select "View Auction Catalog" Turturro's 'SUNYATA' IS UP FOR AUCTION!
E-mail: : rtmac571 23@yahoo.com/
STATEMENT - IN PROGRESS ( Updated – 08-26-2006 ):
The work is about trying to break through the physical to a world beyond that is more real . The color, texture, text and inadvertent images that grow out of the process of painting are the tools used to discover this world beyond. As of late I think of my work as one would consider the life of cells. They are real and exist despite their relative invisibility. Without them we could not exist. They hold in them, history, beauty, balance and wonder. They communicate with each other silently without explaining. They continue to evolve, mutate and produce life.
…streams of consciousness...along side of image...written words...letters - they're in my work - words and letters in a stream of conscious and unconsciousness...trusting the flow...discovering the uncompromising truths that belie the process of constant looking, drawing, administering, arranging ...composing...painting...it is one process among many that employ these universalities...that ideally can teach you to love, to accept, to have compassion and reverence....it is a process, at times, that can stop all time...make things clear, invite the spirit, bring back the awe of lost moments...rush ahead to the prophetic....at the same instance this process can make you giddy, and bent over with laughter...speaking to the absurdities; the underlying joy behind most things...the certainties, uncertainties, the ambiguities, the truths, the lies ....
I am drawn to rust and corrosion the way others are to flowers. Give me a graffiti wall; a stained sidewalk; a beaten-up old wooden school desk.... any day...
I have been looking at Joyce's 'Finnegan's Wake' for this past year, the sounds, the rhythms, the unpredictability of each word and their relationships...I appreciate each page for what ever I can draw from it...it humbles, it liberates, it beckons me to paint, to walk, to look, to discover...it strengthens my resolve to need not understand the mystery but to live it.
I paint with oils and Acrylics in particular Golden Acrylics and Mediums as well as waxes, sand, wood shavings, scraps of wood, canvas, other paintings, newspaper, cardboards, matt boards, magazines, and any other interesting surface builders I discover along the way. A piece of rusted crushed metal on the roadside is likely to find its way in one of my paintings.
LESS SAID
DICOVERING THE POWER OF VISUAL WRITING AND TEXTURE
NEXT GALLERY at MCNY SEPT. 5 - OCT. 27 2006
Painting is still something that continues to fill me with wonder and awe. It is like being an archeologist discovering found objects that send you reeling back and forth through time. Everyday it brings you closer to your mortality, demands that you face yourself for better or for worse, teaches you to accept and cherish loss; the unmitigated truth of it, the horror, the beauty...
Understated; Open Spaces; Unresolved Endings; Socratic Inquiry; The Inherent Truths in Contradiction; Things that make sense; Things that do not make sense; Palimpsests; Illegible Markings that can either be Letters or Figures on Active Surfaces, Worn away Names/Dates on Grave Stones, Old ships, Walls etc...these are some of the Texts and Textures that fuel the work ...need I say more...
Matisse said " Artist's (Painters) should cut out their tongues...”
STATEMENT - IN PROGRESS ( Updated – 10-20-2004 ):
The man at the Texas diner told me “our entire lives were merely images
stored on micro film since the time of Christ and that the Government
Stored this micro film”. The strange part of this is not that this man thought
these things and said these things but that I did not so easily dismiss them
and that even till this day, 20 years later, I still consider that there is something
to his story. Just the idea of possibility; of the outrageous; the impossible.
Like a painting, life often appears to have no concrete connection with our immediate flesh and blood reality. Life, like a painting in it’s micro and macro insurgencies continues to reinvent itself. Forge ahead as one reality after another.
Where do films exist? “ The Stepford Wives” exists in a can, in our minds in our culture…could it happen? Could Hitchcock’s “Psycho” happen? Psychos and Stepford like wives, unfortunately happen too often amongst our species. And Mankind, to deal with it turns it into ‘ART’, into a virtual space we call Film-Movie-Motion Picture - Photo – Paint - Art!
In the case of the Man in the Texas Diner it is a personal, obscure memory from my flesh and blood experience that has now transformed into what it is: this strange ephemeral dream like artifact that informs my curious nature; that makes it’s way into the virtual spaces of this writing. It makes me cynical but hopeful that anything could be true and that quite possibly everything we think is true, is not.
This gives me great cause to paint. To be filled with wonder on a regular basis. Especially when encountering things that are real. That reek of real. And then comparing them to what is accepted, almost common place –taken for granted, everyday real.
Our day to day lives are filled with fragmented bits of flawed facts, multi-medias, pseudo-knowledge and fleeting intuitions that “Abstraction” shouldn’t seem so foreign a word or at best, not be so categorized as it is. Most things we do have aspects of the meanings of this word – ABSTRACT
.
We dream and then forget and then have ‘De Ja Vu’ . We retell the dream or the De Ja Vu experience to friends at work. These are abstract events. One thing turns into another. A blow up of a small section of something till it becomes very far from it’s origin. Till it forgets it’s origin.
There is nothing more abstract than everyday life. The difficulty is in separating what is real from reality. It happens in micro and macro places of our cells, our brains, our homes and schools. One way to balance all this stimuli is to turn it into virtual space. Painting is one option.
PREVIOUS ARTIST’S STATEMENT: ca. 2001-2003
In the way that one might discover the innate beauty that exists within the colors of rust or a patina’d rock or a stain on ashphault or cement pavement that has that rightness of relationships and alchemy; that “Yaki Way” of finding the most, best position for sleep; in this way it is ‘Beauty’ that is the intention of my work…“ Beauty is Truth, Truth, Beauty” Keats
Discovering the beauty and rightness in every day life - in the oddest places - happens without planning. It compels me to see my life and my work moving together in a subjective time frame, responding to moments in a day of observations - stimulated by: conversations, music, road signs, lyrics, poems, etc. These experiences become inspirations to paint and while painting inspire departures to make marks, build textures, seize colors and images.
Ultimately I believe painting is not painting at all, it is seeing; it is a way of being in one’s life. Painting shows me what I am, where I am and what I understand. It is my perceptions and how they evolve over time. The biggest draw painting has to offer is that it sparks the way to what I’ve yet to see.
Abstract painting is the structure, the mode, the style which best conveys the experience of painting as real, not second to the experiences that inspired it. During the process of drawing, scratching, brushing, cementing, dropping and throwing, a trust and confidence builds; the paint begins to transform into a life on it’s own that has witnessed and been there and through something; a thing that has learned to organize itself through attrition, through a life system that is in and of itself “new’ and free of the artist’s will and hand.
Finally the subjective time frame is shed; trusting your life to this work; remaining open for the objective consciousness to take over and inadvertently a new, abstract narrative forms - a language, a visual language – about your life; one that is as enigmatic to me as it is to the viewer; one that becomes as many things to me as to the viewer– the ego is lessened, perspective changes and the work becomes ecstatic and more importantly the work becomes the ‘Experience’, ‘The Thing’ and the ‘Reality’. My only claim to the creation of a given work is having recognized it
Resume' and Price lists
Ralph Turturro
51 Maple Avenue
Cortland, N.Y. 13045
(607) 753-7934
E-mail: : rtmac571 23@yahoo.com/
Web Pages: http://www.ralphturturro.com/
http://rturturroanewgallerypaint123.blogspot.com/
51 Maple Avenue
Cortland, N.Y. 13045
(607) 753-7934
E-mail: : rtmac571 23@yahoo.com/
Web Pages: http://www.ralphturturro.com/
http://rturturroanewgallerypaint123.blogspot.com/
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
Sept. - Oct. '06 'Less Said' - NEXT GALLERY at MCNY - NYC New York
December ’05 ‘Studio Tour’ - ‘Open studio tour’ - Cortland Cultural Council, Cortland N.Y.
January ’05 ‘Featured Solo Exhibition’ - ZOOM Studios – New York, NY
November 14th ’04 ‘Studio Tour’ - ‘Open studio tour’ - Cortland Cultural Council, Cortland N.Y.
June – July 2004 'One Person Exhibition’, Dowd Fine Art Gallery, Cortland, New York
May ’00 – Present So-Ho – Street Exhibition, West Broadway, So-Ho, N.Y.
Feb.– Mar. – 2004 ‘ Solo Show’ – Fabio’s Restaurant, Cortland, New York
January – 2004 ‘New Paintings’ – The Night Eagle Café, Oxford New York
Sept.– Oct. 2001 ‘One person exhibition’ Tapajoz Gallery, New Milford, CT.
June – July 2001 ‘New Works by Ralph Turturro’, Art Builders Inc., Jersey City, N.J.
Feb. 2001 ‘House Plans: Texture/Text’, State of the Art Gallery, Ithaca, N.Y.
June – Present ‘One Person Show’ – Techniques (Salon), Cortland, N.Y.
June 2000 ‘New Works’, Open/House/Barn/Studio Gallery, Cortland, N.Y.
Feb. – Nov. 1999 ‘Titanic Dreams’, The Grill Room, Cortland, N.Y.
Feb. – March 1999 ‘Naked Dreams’, Curator/Participant, Clinton House Artspace, Ithaca, N.Y.
Oct. 1998 ‘Recent Paintings’, State of the Art Gallery, Ithaca, N.Y.
Feb. 1996 ‘Recent Works’, State of the Art Gallery, Ithaca, N.Y.
1994 – 1995 ‘ New Paintings’, The Grill Room, Cortland, N.Y.
1994 ‘Open House’, Studio Gallery, Brooklyn, N.Y.
1991 ‘Recent Paintings’, Sonia Bernhardt Gallery, Washington, D.C.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
July thru Present Showcased Paintings - Elder Gallery - Charlotte, North Carolina
Jan. - March ‘07 Group Exhibition - Buena Vuelta Bistro - L.I. City , New York
Aug. - Present Group Show - Beard Building, Downtown Cortland
Sept. 28-30th '06 Auction - "Out of Body" 1986 - Newport Mansions Wine & Food Festival - NP, R.I
Jan. - Feb. ‘06 ‘Emerging Artists’ – Elder Gallery – Charlotte, North Carolina
April – May ’05 - ‘Emerging Artists’ – Elder Gallery – Charlotte, North Carolina
February ’05 - ‘On View @ The NOBE Gallery – Washington, D.C.
Dec-Jan. ’04 – ’05 ‘Group Exhibition’ Feautured Artist – StoneFish Gallery - Calgary, Canada
Sept. – Oct. ‘04 ‘ GROUP 2004’, Allan Stone Gallery, New York, N.Y.
October – ‘04 ‘Juried Fine Arts’ Juried by Donald Kuspit, SmithTown Arts Council (STAC), L.I., NY
Sept – Nov. ‘04 ‘ ‘Rock Scissors Paper -Group Exhibition – Pinstripe Pokadot gallery – Cortland, NY
Feb. – March ‘04 ‘ Group Showcase’, Resource Associates – Cortland, N.Y.
Sept.- Oct. ‘03 ‘Invitational’, State of the Art Gallery, Ithaca, N.Y.
Sept.- Oct. ‘03 ‘ Talent 2003’, Allan Stone Gallery, New York, N.Y.
March – April ‘03 ‘Current Conditions’, Lucky’s @77 Main St. Cortland, NY
Jan. 2003 ‘Art Expo’ , Allan Stone Gallery, San Francisco, Ca
March – April ‘02 ‘Abstraction 2002” , Allan Stone Gallery, New York, N.Y.
Jan. 2002 ‘Art Expo’ , Allan Stone Gallery, San Francisco, Ca.
Sept. 2001 ‘New Talent’, Allan Stone Gallery, New York, N.Y.
Jan. 2001 ‘Inscribed Image’, Group Exhibition, New Ithaca Library, Ithaca, N.Y.
Dec. 2000 December Member Show, State of the Art Gallery, Ithaca, N.Y.
Oct. 2000 Group Exhibition, The Warehouse, Cortland, N.Y.
Sept. – Oct. 2000 ‘New Talent’, Allan Stone Gallery, New York, N.Y.
Sept. – Oct. 2000 ‘New Paintings’(Two person show), Cortland Frame Company, Cortland, N.Y.
Sept. – Oct. 2000 The Saltonstall Group Exhibition, State of the Art Gallery, Ithaca, N.Y.
Feb. 2000 ‘New Works, Two Person Exhibition, C.S.M.A., Ithaca, N.Y.
Sept. – Oct. 1999 ‘New Talent’, Allan Stone Gallery, Ithaca, N.Y.
Aug. – Dec.1999 Two person Show, Madeline’s, Ithaca, N.Y.
Nov. 1998 Franklinfest, Tribeca Art Walk Group Exhibition, Tribeca, N.Y.
1985 – 1989 ‘New Talent Exhibition’, Allan Stone Gallery, New York, N.Y.
RESIDENCY:
Aug. 1999 Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts
One month painting residency, Ellis Hollow, Ithaca, N.Y.
INTERNSHIPS:
Spring 86 – 87 Interned with George McNeil, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Spring 84 – 87 Interned with Professor Richard Bove, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N.Y.
EDUCATION:
1991 – 1994 Post Graduate Education, Queens and Brooklyn College
1982 – 1985 M.F.A., Pratt Institute, Brooklyn
1975 – 1979 B.S.A., University of Wisconsin, Madison
PRICE LISTS
# TITLE YEAR DIMENSIONS MEDIUM RETAIL PRICE
1. Unless 2007 48X48” ACRYL/MX-MD/CANVAS 8,000
2. West of Eden 2007 48X48” ACRYL/MX-MD/CANVAS 8,000
3. Bramble 2007 48X48” ACRYL/MX-MD/CANVAS 8,000
4. Here After 2007 48X48” ACRYL/MX-MD/CANVAS 8,000
5. Poison wood 2007 48X48” ACRYL/MX-MD/CANVAS 8,000
6. Until 2007 26X26” ACRYL/MX-MD/CANVAS 4,200
7. Blogging 2007 36X48” ACRYL/MX-MD/CANVAS 6,000
8. Role Play 2007 48X66” ACRYL/MX-MD/CANVAS 11,000
9. Fathers house 2007 45X75” ACRYL/MX-MD/CANVAS 11,000
10. Act of 2007 22X30” ACRYL/MX-MD/PAPER 3,500
11. Confessions 2007 22X30” ACRYL/MX-MD/PAPER 3,500
12. Under Tones 2007 22X30” ACRYL/MX-MD/PAPER 3,500
13. Black Hearts 2007 30X22” ACRYL/MX-MD/PAPER 3,500
14. Quintessence 2001 24X18” OIL/MX-MD/PAPER 4,000
15. Limbo 2006 65X48” ACRYL/MX-MD/CANVAS 11,000
16. Threshold 2006 48X66” ACRYL/MX-MD/CANVAS 11,000
17. White Noise 2006 48X66” OIL/MX-MD/CANVAS 15,000
18. Collide 2006 48X66” OIL/MX-MD/CANVAS 15,000
19. Most of the Time 2005 66X96” ACRYL/MX-MD/CANVAS 18,000
20. Intimate Stranger 2005 66X96” ACRYL/MX-MD/CANVAS 18,000
21. Between Us 2006 48X66” ACRYL/MX-MD/CANVAS 11,000
22. Change of Heart 2006 48X66” ACRYL/MX-MD/CANVAS 11,000
23. Bi-Partisans 2006 36X48” ACRYL/MX-MD/CANVAS 6,000
24. Prelude 2006 40X60” ACRYL/MX-MD/CANVAS 9,000
25. Memory Palace 2007 40X70” ACRYL/MX-MD/CANVAS 10,000
26. Family 2006 24X42” OIL/MX-MD/ONCANVAS 5,100
27. Exposed 2006 24X42” OIL/MX-MD/ONCANVAS 5,100
28. Protean Eye 2003 30X30” OIL/MX-MD/ONCANVAS 4,800
29. Wanderer 2002 24X24” OIL/MX-MD/ON CANVAS 3,800
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