Since the early 1990’s, Fred Tomaselli has created multimedia paintings which explode in mesmerizing and hallucinatory patterns. In this video, Tomaselli discusses the latest body of work presented in his solo exhibition at James Cohan. These new paintings marry Tomaselli's resin paintings with his ongoing New York Times collages. The artist's interest in newsprint as material has become an extended exploration into the power of news media to shape and reshape our perceptions of reality. Conceptually, these fragments of media are similar to the psychoactive and psychedelic drugs he terms “reality modification devices,” which were prevalent in his work throughout the 1990’s and noticeably absent from this recent work. Tomaselli has traded one sort of buzz for another, replacing pills with text and headlines pulled directly from The New York Times.
This video was produced on the occasion of Fred Tomaselli's solo exhibition at James Cohan, 48 Walker Street from October 23 through November 21, 2020.
