Soot Mixed Media

medium: Electric guitar, aluminum (found cans), wire, soot, enamel ARTIST STATEMENT: Who leaves these crushed beer cans, this forlorn evidence, scattered in the streets of the city...

Smoke and Acrylic Case. Isabel Alonso Vega (Madrid,1969). Lives and works between Madrid and Berlin. Selected solo shows: 2019 Senza Fuoco, White Noise Gallery, Rome, IT 2017 Beh...

100% Smoke on archival paper mounted to panel 22x30x2.5" I _____ NY Statement – Rob Tarbell One cannot visit and experience New York City without contributing to its cultural cleansing and commercial homogenization. With the continuing crawl of Disneyfication, its gritty veneer, urban edge, and creative soul have diminished. This body of work engages with the notion expressed daily by the city’s natives and the creative community - longing for the neighborhood character and color, crime, squatting, and summertime blackouts of yesteryear while waxing poetic about the plethora of Mom and Pop shops, bars, clubs, and restaurants disappearing before their eyes. On the one hand, we may take comfort in the new found safety of the streets, but the energy that came from staking a claim in the toughest city in the world is waning. There are certainly those who would argue this shift as progress. But for many others, with every I Love New York t-shirt sold, a little bit more of the city’s core disappears. This body of work explores the temporal nature of our sense of place through the use and connotations associated with smoke. The visual history of places that no longer exist, or are no longer accessible, or have changed beyond recognition ebb and flow between clarity, dissipation, and void. Figures and structures are ghosts while the compositions themselves disappear into white or vanish with a poof. Imagery bounces back and forth between the real and the abstract, a parallel to the in-between all New Yorkers traverse via public transit as they witness their city in flux, not yet gone, but going. Rob Tarbell Artist Statement: In my practice, making art is as much directing intent as it is about scientific tinkering. All of my diverse work is linked by the transformation and manipulation of traditional materials as i explore non-traditional ones. The loss of an original and the use of elaborate processes are inherent to the creation of the smokes, paintings, and porcelain series. The work intends to both balance accident with control and give permanence to the ephemeral. Education MFA Drawing & Painting, Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN MS Curriculum & Instruction, Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN BFA Painting & Graphic Design, Auburn Univ, Auburn, AL Selected Exhibitions: 2016 Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2015 Smoke Screens, Alfstad Contemporary, Sarasota, FL 2013 All Ages, Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2012 Bird-Like Things in Things Like Trees, White Box, New York, NY Bird-Like Things in Things Like Trees, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA 2011 Vitreous Humor, Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2010 Follies of the Wise, Hunt Gallery, Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, VA Ride, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA Heads or Tails, The Art Registry Group, Washington, D.C. 2009 Meet the Struggles & Smoke Rings, Decorazon Gallery...

100% Smoke on archival paper mounted to panel 22x30x2.5" I _____ NY Statement – Rob Tarbell One cannot visit and experience New York City without contributing to its cultural cleansing and commercial homogenization. With the continuing crawl of Disneyfication, its gritty veneer, urban edge, and creative soul have diminished. This body of work engages with the notion expressed daily by the city’s natives and the creative community - longing for the neighborhood character and color, crime, squatting, and summertime blackouts of yesteryear while waxing poetic about the plethora of Mom and Pop shops, bars, clubs, and restaurants disappearing before their eyes. On the one hand, we may take comfort in the new found safety of the streets, but the energy that came from staking a claim in the toughest city in the world is waning. There are certainly those who would argue this shift as progress. But for many others, with every I Love New York t-shirt sold, a little bit more of the city’s core disappears. This body of work explores the temporal nature of our sense of place through the use and connotations associated with smoke. The visual history of places that no longer exist, or are no longer accessible, or have changed beyond recognition ebb and flow between clarity, dissipation, and void. Figures and structures are ghosts while the compositions themselves disappear into white or vanish with a poof. Imagery bounces back and forth between the real and the abstract, a parallel to the in-between all New Yorkers traverse via public transit as they witness their city in flux, not yet gone, but going. Rob Tarbell Artist Statement: In my practice, making art is as much directing intent as it is about scientific tinkering. All of my diverse work is linked by the transformation and manipulation of traditional materials as i explore non-traditional ones. The loss of an original and the use of elaborate processes are inherent to the creation of the smokes, paintings, and porcelain series. The work intends to both balance accident with control and give permanence to the ephemeral. Education MFA Drawing & Painting, Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN MS Curriculum & Instruction, Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN BFA Painting & Graphic Design, Auburn Univ, Auburn, AL Selected Exhibitions: 2016 Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2015 Smoke Screens, Alfstad Contemporary, Sarasota, FL 2013 All Ages, Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2012 Bird-Like Things in Things Like Trees, White Box, New York, NY Bird-Like Things in Things Like Trees, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA 2011 Vitreous Humor, Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2010 Follies of the Wise, Hunt Gallery, Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, VA Ride, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA Heads or Tails, The Art Registry Group, Washington, D.C. 2009 Meet the Struggles & Smoke Rings, Decorazon Gallery...

100% Smoke on archival paper mounted to panel 22x30x2.5" I _____ NY Statement – Rob Tarbell One cannot visit and experience New York City without contributing to its cultural cleansing and commercial homogenization. With the continuing crawl of Disneyfication, its gritty veneer, urban edge, and creative soul have diminished. This body of work engages with the notion expressed daily by the city’s natives and the creative community - longing for the neighborhood character and color, crime, squatting, and summertime blackouts of yesteryear while waxing poetic about the plethora of Mom and Pop shops, bars, clubs, and restaurants disappearing before their eyes. On the one hand, we may take comfort in the new found safety of the streets, but the energy that came from staking a claim in the toughest city in the world is waning. There are certainly those who would argue this shift as progress. But for many others, with every I Love New York t-shirt sold, a little bit more of the city’s core disappears. This body of work explores the temporal nature of our sense of place through the use and connotations associated with smoke. The visual history of places that no longer exist, or are no longer accessible, or have changed beyond recognition ebb and flow between clarity, dissipation, and void. Figures and structures are ghosts while the compositions themselves disappear into white or vanish with a poof. Imagery bounces back and forth between the real and the abstract, a parallel to the in-between all New Yorkers traverse via public transit as they witness their city in flux, not yet gone, but going. Rob Tarbell Artist Statement: In my practice, making art is as much directing intent as it is about scientific tinkering. All of my diverse work is linked by the transformation and manipulation of traditional materials as i explore non-traditional ones. The loss of an original and the use of elaborate processes are inherent to the creation of the smokes, paintings, and porcelain series. The work intends to both balance accident with control and give permanence to the ephemeral. Education MFA Drawing & Painting, Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN MS Curriculum & Instruction, Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN BFA Painting & Graphic Design, Auburn Univ, Auburn, AL Selected Exhibitions: 2016 Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2015 Smoke Screens, Alfstad Contemporary, Sarasota, FL 2013 All Ages, Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2012 Bird-Like Things in Things Like Trees, White Box, New York, NY Bird-Like Things in Things Like Trees, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA 2011 Vitreous Humor, Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2010 Follies of the Wise, Hunt Gallery, Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, VA Ride, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA Heads or Tails, The Art Registry Group, Washington, D.C. 2009 Meet the Struggles & Smoke Rings, Decorazon Gallery...

100% Smoke on archival paper mounted to panel 22x30x2.5" I _____ NY Statement – Rob Tarbell One cannot visit and experience New York City without contributing to its cultural cleansing and commercial homogenization. With the continuing crawl of Disneyfication, its gritty veneer, urban edge, and creative soul have diminished. This body of work engages with the notion expressed daily by the city’s natives and the creative community - longing for the neighborhood character and color, crime, squatting, and summertime blackouts of yesteryear while waxing poetic about the plethora of Mom and Pop shops, bars, clubs, and restaurants disappearing before their eyes. On the one hand, we may take comfort in the new found safety of the streets, but the energy that came from staking a claim in the toughest city in the world is waning. There are certainly those who would argue this shift as progress. But for many others, with every I Love New York t-shirt sold, a little bit more of the city’s core disappears. This body of work explores the temporal nature of our sense of place through the use and connotations associated with smoke. The visual history of places that no longer exist, or are no longer accessible, or have changed beyond recognition ebb and flow between clarity, dissipation, and void. Figures and structures are ghosts while the compositions themselves disappear into white or vanish with a poof. Imagery bounces back and forth between the real and the abstract, a parallel to the in-between all New Yorkers traverse via public transit as they witness their city in flux, not yet gone, but going. Rob Tarbell Artist Statement: In my practice, making art is as much directing intent as it is about scientific tinkering. All of my diverse work is linked by the transformation and manipulation of traditional materials as i explore non-traditional ones. The loss of an original and the use of elaborate processes are inherent to the creation of the smokes, paintings, and porcelain series. The work intends to both balance accident with control and give permanence to the ephemeral. Education MFA Drawing & Painting, Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN MS Curriculum & Instruction, Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN BFA Painting & Graphic Design, Auburn Univ, Auburn, AL Selected Exhibitions: 2016 Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2015 Smoke Screens, Alfstad Contemporary, Sarasota, FL 2013 All Ages, Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2012 Bird-Like Things in Things Like Trees, White Box, New York, NY Bird-Like Things in Things Like Trees, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA 2011 Vitreous Humor, Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2010 Follies of the Wise, Hunt Gallery, Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, VA Ride, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA Heads or Tails, The Art Registry Group, Washington, D.C. 2009 Meet the Struggles & Smoke Rings, Decorazon Gallery, Dallas, TX Diagnostics, Smoyer Gallery, Roanoke College, Roanoke, VA Smoke Rings, Gallery Imperato, Baltimore, MD New Work, Krause Gallery, Atlanta, GA Absence and Presence, Rosewood Gallery, Kettering, OH 2008 No Mirrors, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA The Struggles Play Nice, Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA 2007 New Struggles, ADA Gallery, Richmond, VA Replacements, Art6 Gallery, Richmond VA 2006 Birding, North Gallery, Piedmont Virginia Community College, Charlottesville, VA 2005 Freefalling, Kirsten Bowen Gallery, Columbus, OH Selected Group Exhibitions 2016 London Art Fair, London, U.K. ((Decorazon Gallery) 2015 Texas Contemporary, Houston (Decorazon Gallery) Affordable Art Fair Korea, Seoul (Decorazon Gallery) Affordable Art Fair Battersea, London (Decorazon Gallery) Asia Contemporary Art Fair Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China (Decorazon Gallery) SCOPE: New York, New York (Krause Gallery) Select 2015: Washington Project for the Arts Art Auction, Artisphere, DC. (Jennifer Farrell, Curator; catalog) The Gypset Art Series, Decorazon Gallery, Dallas, Texas Past and Present, Krause Gallery, New York 2014 SCOPE: Miami, Miami (Decorazon Gallery) 3 in 1: Ringling Faculty Exhibition, Selby Gallery, Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, FL Nexus, SECAC: Juried Exhibition, Art Center Sarsota, Sarasota, FL, (Matthew McLendon, Juror) Affordable Art Fair Battersea, London (Decorazon Gallery) Scorch, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA Affordable Art Fair Singapore, Singapore (Decorazon Gallery) SCOPE: NYC, New York (Krause Gallery) Made in Sarasota, Allyn Gallup Contemporary Art, Sarasota, FL 2013 Affordable Art Fair Singapore, Singapore (Decorazon Gallery) Affordable Art Fair Seattle, Seattle, Washington (Decorazon Gallery) Affordable Art Fair Battersea, London, England (Decorazon Gallery) Face Off: Skull-A-Day vs Street Anatomy Show, International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago, IL Crossing Borders, Susan Mumford Art Projects, Oxford American, Little Rock, AK Alchemical Vessels Benefit, Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery, Smith Center for Healing & the Arts, Washington Circus Pony, Liminal Alternative Artspace, Roanoke, VA Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China (Decorazon Gallery) Affordable Art Fair Brussels, Brussels, Belguim (Decorazon Gallery) Animatopoæa: A Most Peculiar (Post Modern) Bestiary, Galleries @ Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH 2012 Affordable Art Fair London Battersea, London, England (Decorazon Gallery) Summer, Decorazon Gallery @ Delicate Mayhem Gallery, London, England 2012 Distilled Memory, Decorazon Gallery, The Framers Gallery / Artefact Showroom London, England Deviations From Comfort, National Council for Education of Ceramic Arts, Seattle Design Center, Seattle, WA Mimesis, Intersections - A New America Arts Festival, Atlas Performing Arts Center, Washington, D.C. Textuality: An International Exhibit of Works Involving Text or Letterforms, Manifest, Cincinnati, OH Catch 22, Art Auction Exhibition, 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA Affordable Art Fair Brussels, Brussels, Belguim (Decorazon Gallery) Let There Be Light, Piedmont Virginia Community College, Charlottesville, VA Affordable Art Fair London Battersea, London, England (Decorazon Gallery) 2011 Black & White, Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, CA (e)Merge Art Fair, Washington, D.C., (Washington Project for the Arts, flat file) Affordable Art Fair, New York, NY (Decorazon Gallery) New Waves, Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, Virginia Beach, VA 2010 Aqua Art Fair, Miami FL (Decorazon Gallery) Fire Works, Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ Affordable Art Fair, New York, NY (Krause Gallery) Medium & Mystery, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA Isolation, Hemphill Fine Art - Carrol Square Gallery, Washington, D.C. In the Beginning, Chroma Projects, Charlottesville, VA 2009 Art of Play, Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, CA Aqua Art Miami, Miami, FL (Krause Gallery & Les Yeux du Monde) Creatures Great & Small, Eagle Art Gallery, Murray State Univ, Murray, KY, Lexington Art League, Lexington, KY (catalog) Little Creatures, 1708 Satellite Show, Linden Row, Ricmond, VA Sweet Summertime, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, Virginia Affordable Art Fair, New York, NY (Krause Gallery & Gallery Imperato) Juried Exhibition, Brenda Taylor Gallery, New York, New York (2/26 - 3/7) Washington Project for the Arts Art Auction, The Katzen Center for the Arts @ American University, DC. (catalog) Black and White, Krause Gallery, Atlanta, GA 2008 Small Works, Krause Gallery, Atlanta, GA Biennial 2008, Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Newport News, VA (Mark Richard Leach, Juror) International Exhibitions at Xian, Lian Bao Lou Gallery, Bejing, China Interrogating Beauty, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE. (Eleanor Heartney, Curator) 2007 Salon Selectives 2, ADA Gallery, Richmond, VA Extremely Superficial, Dangenart Gallery, Nashville, TN Yongsanh International Art Exhibition, Daegu Cultural Arts Center, Daegu, South Korea (catalog) Loyola National Works on Paper, Crown Center Gallery, Loyola University, Chicago, IL Yongsanh International Art Exhibition, Chungpah Gallery, Sook Myung University, Seoul City, Korea (catalog) Artificum of Humanitas, Traveling Exhibition: Shang-Shang Gallery, Bejing, China; Seoul Hae-Tae Gallery, Seoul, Korea (catalog) Radius 250, Artspace Gallery, Richmond, VA. (Ragan Cole-Cunningham, Juror) Art Auction a la Mode, 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA 2006 Silent Night, 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA SCOPE: Miami, Miami, FL (ADA Gallery, flat file) ART 212 Contemporary Art Fair, New York, NY (ADA Gallery, flat file) Biennial 2006, Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Newport News, VA (Drawing Award, Tony Hepburn...

100% Smoke on archival paper mounted to panel 22x30x2.5" I _____ NY Statement – Rob Tarbell One cannot visit and experience New York City without contributing to its cultural cleansing and commercial homogenization. With the continuing crawl of Disneyfication, its gritty veneer, urban edge, and creative soul have diminished. This body of work engages with the notion expressed daily by the city’s natives and the creative community - longing for the neighborhood character and color, crime, squatting, and summertime blackouts of yesteryear while waxing poetic about the plethora of Mom and Pop shops, bars, clubs, and restaurants disappearing before their eyes. On the one hand, we may take comfort in the new found safety of the streets, but the energy that came from staking a claim in the toughest city in the world is waning. There are certainly those who would argue this shift as progress. But for many others, with every I Love New York t-shirt sold, a little bit more of the city’s core disappears. This body of work explores the temporal nature of our sense of place through the use and connotations associated with smoke. The visual history of places that no longer exist, or are no longer accessible, or have changed beyond recognition ebb and flow between clarity, dissipation, and void. Figures and structures are ghosts while the compositions themselves disappear into white or vanish with a poof. Imagery bounces back and forth between the real and the abstract, a parallel to the in-between all New Yorkers traverse via public transit as they witness their city in flux, not yet gone, but going. Rob Tarbell Artist Statement: In my practice, making art is as much directing intent as it is about scientific tinkering. All of my diverse work is linked by the transformation and manipulation of traditional materials as i explore non-traditional ones. The loss of an original and the use of elaborate processes are inherent to the creation of the smokes, paintings, and porcelain series. The work intends to both balance accident with control and give permanence to the ephemeral. Education MFA Drawing & Painting, Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN MS Curriculum & Instruction, Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN BFA Painting & Graphic Design, Auburn Univ, Auburn, AL Selected Exhibitions: 2016 Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2015 Smoke Screens, Alfstad Contemporary, Sarasota, FL 2013 All Ages, Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2012 Bird-Like Things in Things Like Trees, White Box, New York, NY Bird-Like Things in Things Like Trees, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA 2011 Vitreous Humor, Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2010 Follies of the Wise, Hunt Gallery, Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, VA Ride, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA Heads or Tails, The Art Registry Group, Washington, D.C. 2009 Meet the Struggles & Smoke Rings, Decorazon Gallery...

100% Smoke on archival paper mounted to panel 22x30x2.5" I _____ NY Statement – Rob Tarbell One cannot visit and experience New York City without contributing to its cultural cleansing and commercial homogenization. With the continuing crawl of Disneyfication, its gritty veneer, urban edge, and creative soul have diminished. This body of work engages with the notion expressed daily by the city’s natives and the creative community - longing for the neighborhood character and color, crime, squatting, and summertime blackouts of yesteryear while waxing poetic about the plethora of Mom and Pop shops, bars, clubs, and restaurants disappearing before their eyes. On the one hand, we may take comfort in the new found safety of the streets, but the energy that came from staking a claim in the toughest city in the world is waning. There are certainly those who would argue this shift as progress. But for many others, with every I Love New York t-shirt sold, a little bit more of the city’s core disappears. This body of work explores the temporal nature of our sense of place through the use and connotations associated with smoke. The visual history of places that no longer exist, or are no longer accessible, or have changed beyond recognition ebb and flow between clarity, dissipation, and void. Figures and structures are ghosts while the compositions themselves disappear into white or vanish with a poof. Imagery bounces back and forth between the real and the abstract, a parallel to the in-between all New Yorkers traverse via public transit as they witness their city in flux, not yet gone, but going. Rob Tarbell Artist Statement: In my practice, making art is as much directing intent as it is about scientific tinkering. All of my diverse work is linked by the transformation and manipulation of traditional materials as i explore non-traditional ones. The loss of an original and the use of elaborate processes are inherent to the creation of the smokes, paintings, and porcelain series. The work intends to both balance accident with control and give permanence to the ephemeral. Education MFA Drawing & Painting, Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN MS Curriculum & Instruction, Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN BFA Painting & Graphic Design, Auburn Univ, Auburn, AL Selected Exhibitions: 2016 Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2015 Smoke Screens, Alfstad Contemporary, Sarasota, FL 2013 All Ages, Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2012 Bird-Like Things in Things Like Trees, White Box, New York, NY Bird-Like Things in Things Like Trees, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA 2011 Vitreous Humor, Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2010 Follies of the Wise, Hunt Gallery, Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, VA Ride, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA Heads or Tails, The Art Registry Group, Washington, D.C. 2009 Meet the Struggles & Smoke Rings, Decorazon Gallery...

100% Smoke on archival paper mounted to panel 30x22x2.5" I _____ NY Statement – Rob Tarbell “I see a city that’s losing its texture, its character, its grit. Yes, New york City is still the greatest city in the world. But it is no longer the most exciting and surely, it now ranks as the most heartbreaking.” Maggie Wrigley One cannot visit and experience New York City without contributing to its cultural cleansing and commercial homogenization. With the continuing crawl of Disneyfication, its gritty veneer, urban edge, and creative soul have diminished. This body of work engages with the notion expressed daily by the city’s natives and the creative community - longing for the neighborhood character and color, crime, squatting, and summertime blackouts of yesteryear while waxing poetic about the plethora of Mom and Pop shops, bars, clubs, and restaurants disappearing before their eyes. On the one hand, we may take comfort in the new found safety of the streets, but the energy that came from staking a claim in the toughest city in the world is waning. There are certainly those who would argue this shift as progress. But for many others, with every I Love New York t-shirt sold, a little bit more of the city’s core disappears. This body of work explores the temporal nature of our sense of place through the use and connotations associated with smoke. The visual history of places that no longer exist, or are no longer accessible, or have changed beyond recognition ebb and flow between clarity, dissipation, and void. Figures and structures are ghosts while the compositions themselves disappear into white or vanish with a poof. Imagery bounces back and forth between the real and the abstract, a parallel to the in-between all New Yorkers traverse via public transit as they witness their city in flux, not yet gone, but going. Rob Tarbell Artist Statement: In my practice, making art is as much directing intent as it is about scientific tinkering. All of my diverse work is linked by the transformation and manipulation of traditional materials as i explore non-traditional ones. The loss of an original and the use of elaborate processes are inherent to the creation of the smokes, paintings, and porcelain series. The work intends to both balance accident with control and give permanence to the ephemeral. Education MFA Drawing & Painting, Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN MS Curriculum & Instruction, Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN BFA Painting & Graphic Design, Auburn Univ, Auburn, AL Selected Exhibitions: 2016 Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2015 Smoke Screens, Alfstad Contemporary, Sarasota, FL 2013 All Ages, Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2012 Bird-Like Things in Things Like Trees, White Box, New York, NY Bird-Like Things in Things Like Trees, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA 2011 Vitreous Humor, Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2010 Follies of the Wise, Hunt Gallery, Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, VA Ride, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA Heads or Tails, The Art Registry Group, Washington, D.C. 2009 Meet the Struggles & Smoke Rings, Decorazon Gallery...

100% Smoke on archival paper mounted to panel 30x22x2.5" I _____ NY Statement – Rob Tarbell “I see a city that’s losing its texture, its character, its grit. Yes, New york City is still the greatest city in the world. But it is no longer the most exciting and surely, it now ranks as the most heartbreaking.” Maggie Wrigley One cannot visit and experience New York City without contributing to its cultural cleansing and commercial homogenization. With the continuing crawl of Disneyfication, its gritty veneer, urban edge, and creative soul have diminished. This body of work engages with the notion expressed daily by the city’s natives and the creative community - longing for the neighborhood character and color, crime, squatting, and summertime blackouts of yesteryear while waxing poetic about the plethora of Mom and Pop shops, bars, clubs, and restaurants disappearing before their eyes. On the one hand, we may take comfort in the new found safety of the streets, but the energy that came from staking a claim in the toughest city in the world is waning. There are certainly those who would argue this shift as progress. But for many others, with every I Love New York t-shirt sold, a little bit more of the city’s core disappears. This body of work explores the temporal nature of our sense of place through the use and connotations associated with smoke. The visual history of places that no longer exist, or are no longer accessible, or have changed beyond recognition ebb and flow between clarity, dissipation, and void. Figures and structures are ghosts while the compositions themselves disappear into white or vanish with a poof. Imagery bounces back and forth between the real and the abstract, a parallel to the in-between all New Yorkers traverse via public transit as they witness their city in flux, not yet gone, but going. Rob Tarbell Artist Statement: In my practice, making art is as much directing intent as it is about scientific tinkering. All of my diverse work is linked by the transformation and manipulation of traditional materials as i explore non-traditional ones. The loss of an original and the use of elaborate processes are inherent to the creation of the smokes, paintings, and porcelain series. The work intends to both balance accident with control and give permanence to the ephemeral. Education MFA Drawing & Painting, Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN MS Curriculum & Instruction, Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN BFA Painting & Graphic Design, Auburn Univ, Auburn, AL Selected Exhibitions: 2016 Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2015 Smoke Screens, Alfstad Contemporary, Sarasota, FL 2013 All Ages, Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2012 Bird-Like Things in Things Like Trees, White Box, New York, NY Bird-Like Things in Things Like Trees, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA 2011 Vitreous Humor, Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2010 Follies of the Wise, Hunt Gallery, Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, VA Ride, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA Heads or Tails, The Art Registry Group, Washington, D.C. 2009 Meet the Struggles & Smoke Rings, Decorazon Gallery...

100% Smoke on archival paper mounted to panel 30x22"x2.5" I _____ NY Statement – Rob Tarbell “I see a city that’s losing its texture, its character, its grit. Yes, New york City is still the greatest city in the world. But it is no longer the most exciting and surely, it now ranks as the most heartbreaking.” Maggie Wrigley One cannot visit and experience New York City without contributing to its cultural cleansing and commercial homogenization. With the continuing crawl of Disneyfication, its gritty veneer, urban edge, and creative soul have diminished. This body of work engages with the notion expressed daily by the city’s natives and the creative community - longing for the neighborhood character and color, crime, squatting, and summertime blackouts of yesteryear while waxing poetic about the plethora of Mom and Pop shops, bars, clubs, and restaurants disappearing before their eyes. On the one hand, we may take comfort in the new found safety of the streets, but the energy that came from staking a claim in the toughest city in the world is waning. There are certainly those who would argue this shift as progress. But for many others, with every I Love New York t-shirt sold, a little bit more of the city’s core disappears. This body of work explores the temporal nature of our sense of place through the use and connotations associated with smoke. The visual history of places that no longer exist, or are no longer accessible, or have changed beyond recognition ebb and flow between clarity, dissipation, and void. Figures and structures are ghosts while the compositions themselves disappear into white or vanish with a poof. Imagery bounces back and forth between the real and the abstract, a parallel to the in-between all New Yorkers traverse via public transit as they witness their city in flux, not yet gone, but going. Rob Tarbell Artist Statement: In my practice, making art is as much directing intent as it is about scientific tinkering. All of my diverse work is linked by the transformation and manipulation of traditional materials as i explore non-traditional ones. The loss of an original and the use of elaborate processes are inherent to the creation of the smokes, paintings, and porcelain series. The work intends to both balance accident with control and give permanence to the ephemeral. Education MFA Drawing & Painting, Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN MS Curriculum & Instruction, Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN BFA Painting & Graphic Design, Auburn Univ, Auburn, AL Selected Exhibitions: 2016 Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2015 Smoke Screens, Alfstad Contemporary, Sarasota, FL 2013 All Ages, Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2012 Bird-Like Things in Things Like Trees, White Box, New York, NY Bird-Like Things in Things Like Trees, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA 2011 Vitreous Humor, Krause Gallery, New York, NY 2010 Follies of the Wise, Hunt Gallery, Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, VA Ride, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA Heads or Tails, The Art Registry Group, Washington, D.C. 2009 Meet the Struggles & Smoke Rings, Decorazon Gallery...