A solo exhibition by
John Lobosco
March 14- April 10, 2013
Opening Reception:
Sunday, March 24th
From 4:00-8:00 PM
Touch Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Ecstacy, Tragedy, and the Mark, a solo exhibition featuring Boston-area artist John Lobosco. The exhibit will run from March 14 through April 10, 2013. You can meet John at the Opening Reception on Sunday, March 24, from 4-8pm to meet the artist. John’s work will include abstract oil and acrylic paintings as well as works on paper representing varied printmaking techniques.
John Lobosco’s art is process oriented and involves a very physical approach to his materials. Whether it is painting or printmaking, he uses his hands, brushes and other tools, searching for variations in form, texture, opacity or translucency in the paint or ink application. The brush and other marks (including his finger prints) are central to his emotional and intellectual connection to the inanimate object – the image. “Thinking involves the hand,” he says. “This allows me to access the potential expression of the material and my deeper connection to the source and meaning of my paintings and prints – the tragedy and ecstasy of being alive”.
Lobosco is a painter’s painter, with no fear of heaping on the paint. In his “X”painting, a large and sublime oil painting, there is an alluring tension between the sweet yet subtle palette of pinks and yellows and the lavish and forthright application of paint. This idea of opposing forces is seen in many of the works. Lobosco says he thinks of painting in a holistic way and compares it to nature. “Roses still contain thorns, and the seduction of the ocean, my favorite place, can still take you away when you least suspect it.”
When you look at the entire exhibit you experience Lobosco’s searching. There is a search in materials, from mounds of oil paint to thin veils of acrylic paint that still exude a physicality and gravity without the impasto. There is a search in feeling of physical matter. Although many works feel airy, there also are some that feel like a solid object, such as the intaglio prints that contain a multitude of organic marks on what feels like stone or wood. There is a search in painting language as may be seen in the delicate, quiet, and subtle silkscreen prints that call you closer to them.
Lobosco believes that most people want to leave their mark in the world in some way. Some do it with wealth, some with the children they produce, some with fame or good works. Lobosco leaves his mark in the most primal and direct way, with paint or ink on a surface by hand.
John Lobosco is an abstract artist, musician, builder/tinkerer of things, and an educator. He graduated from the Visual Arts Program of the Massachusetts College of Art. John has exhibited his work at the Attleboro Arts Museum, Brown University,, Massachusetts College of Art, the New Jersey Print Council, the Albright, Kingston, Mark, and MPG galleries in the Boston area. In 2009 John was honored with the position of Andy Warhol Artist in Residence in New York to continue and advance his artistic development and experimentation.