current show

Illusion: Collaboration between Josh Wisdumb and David Tonnesen

Thursday, January 28 – Saturday, February 27, 2010

Opening Reception: Thursday, January 28, 6-8PM

Gallery Hours: Thursday-Saturday, noon – 5:00

  Collaboration is a risk taking proposition for artists who are accustomed to working alone. Forming a partnership between creative forces has an influence on how an artist works. Sculptor David Tonnesen, www.davidtonnesen.com  and 2-D artist Josh Wisdumb Spivack, www.joshwisdumb.com  took on this challenge. The pieces in this exhibition are an independent offspring of their convergence of thought, materials and process.

 Living in the same building Wisdumb and Tonnesen would casually meet and discuss their prospective projects. With their age and life experience differences and their personal approaches to art, they had been reluctant to work in collaboration until about one year ago when the unlikely pair agreed to experiment and merge Josh’s bold, colorful and intricate pen and ink drawings and highly expressive bright paintings with David’s 3-dimensional works to see where it could lead.

 Working with Wisdumb, Tonnesen has moved from his normally highly planned approach to art making to a more reactive and impulsive “see where this goes” attack. The two discuss what they generally want to do and let the process take over, occasionally Wisdumb starts with a painting and hands it off to Tonnesen or Tonnesen folds a sheet of copper for Wisdumb to react to and transform. This back and forth may repeat several times until agreement is reached. The past year of collaboration has opened Wisdumb’s eyes to the use of light and shadow and 3- dimensional form which he has started to incorporate into his work.

Thursday - Saturday, 12-5

Brickbottom Gallery, 1 Fitchburg Street,

Somerville, MA 02143     617-776-3410

brickbottomartist@rcn.com