Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 10

Tony Dagradi
Birds of America

2018

About the Item

Medium: hardcover book, acrylic varnish [New Orleans, LA ::: b. 1952 - Queens, NY] TONY DAGRADI is an internationally recognized jazz performer, artist, composer, author, and educator. For over three decades he has made his home in New Orleans, performing on tenor and soprano saxophone with many of the Crescent City’s celebrated artists. He is most well-known for his work with Astral Project, an adventurous quartet of top New Orleans players dedicated to playing cutting-edge improvisational music. His performing past also includes five years as a member of the internationally acclaimed Carla Bley and appearances and recordings with Bobby McFerrin, Mose Allison, and Nat Adderley. Since 2015, Tony has been exploring the visual possibilities of altered books. Choosing vintage and antiquarian texts, he carefully cuts through one page at a time utilizing existing images to create a three-dimensional collage or sculpture. The results allow the contents and imagery of long outdated material to be viewed in a manner that is both exciting and thought-provoking. STATEMENT My decades-long career in contemporary jazz directly informs my work as a visual artist. Music, for me, has always had a visual component, with the diverse elements of music suggesting colors, shapes, and textures. The juxtaposition of abstract shapes which come together as I work on a book, is very much how I perceive the interplay of melody, harmony, and rhythm. Improvisation is also key to my approach in both genres. Within a jazz ensemble, each player is responsible for an individual part which must support and inspire the other musicians. In the heat of the moment, unexpected phrases or motivic ideas can affect surprising new directions for the collective ensemble. Similarly, the tension and harmony which naturally occur as I uncover each new image unfailingly impacts the whole and often shifts the form and concept of the emerging composition. Cutting through each book page by page to expose selected subject matter is primarily a subtractive process. However, I often choose to reserve certain images for later use. This too is comparable to the open-ended conversation on the bandstand and provides me with control over the development of each piece. I prefer working with vintage books and encyclopedias. The eclectic photos and illustrations represent material that is long out of date yet offer a fascinating window into our past. Ultimately, I hope to provide a perspective on the transitory nature of what earlier generations understood to be factual and offer insight into the way ever-evolving media has shaped contemporary perspectives.
More From This SellerView All
  • Human
    By Akihiko Sugiura
    Located in New Orleans, LA
    AKIHIKO SUGIURA is a Japanese painter from Hyogo, Japan whose artistic style mixes purely physical non-representational art with a base of traditional representational painting. A co...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

    Materials

    Mixed Media

  • Marriage Equality
    By Kat Flyn
    Located in New Orleans, LA
    This work celebrates the passage of the Marriage Equality Act. Two old fashion shaving brushes represent a gay couple sanctifying their union inside a chape...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

    Materials

    Mixed Media

  • I.D. Bracelet
    By Esperanza Cortes
    Located in New Orleans, LA
    ESPERANZA CORTÉS is a Colombian born contemporary multidisciplinary artist based in New York City. Cortés has exhibited in the United States in solo and group exhibitions in venues including Smack Mellon Gallery, Neuberger Museum of Art, Bronx Museum of Art, Queens Museum, El Museo Del Barrio, MoMA PS1, Socrates Sculpture Park and White-box Gallery in New York City. Nationally Cortes exhibitions include Cleveland Art Museum, OH, CSU Galleries at Cleveland University, OH, Helen Day Art Center, VT and The Lorenzo Homar...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Sculptures

    Materials

    Metal

  • All the Flowers (for Mikey)
    By Anastasia Pelias
    Located in New Orleans, LA
    Anastasia Pelias was born in New Orleans, LA to Greek parents. Her artistic practice is rooted in the dual cultural identity of both her native and ancestral roots in New Orleans, LA...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Sculptures

    Materials

    Glass, Blown Glass, Mixed Media

  • The Greatest Show On Earth
    By Kat Flyn
    Located in New Orleans, LA
    It is a sign of an unhealthy society when fringe personalities are increasingly found not on the fringe but in its mainstream. They bring with them ignorance, prejudice, and irration...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

    Materials

    Found Objects, Mixed Media

  • The Science is Not Settled
    By Kat Flyn
    Located in New Orleans, LA
    Of course, the Science is settled with regards to the connection between tobacco and lung cancer. In response to the impact this had on the tobacco industry, big corporations began v...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

    Materials

    Mixed Media

You May Also Like
  • Neuropolis / In cities we are born and in cities we die
    By Krištof Kintera
    Located in München, BY
    KRIŠTOF KINTERA Neuropolis / In cities we are born and in cities we die, 2022 Mixed Media 80 x 71 x 23 cm 31 1/2 x 28 x 9 1/8 in
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Mixed Media

    Materials

    Mixed Media

  • Ceramic Frog Sculpture in a glass aquarium, "Last of Her Kind" by Bethany Krull
    By Bethany Krull
    Located in Buffalo, NY
    A lone ceramic frog perches atop a dirt mound covered in blooming artificial flowers. She is a beautiful captive inside her glass aquarium and she is the last of her kind...A creatu...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures

    Materials

    Ceramic, Glass, Mixed Media, Acrylic

  • Snails On a Weathered Board “Traversing Weathered Wood” by Bethany Krull
    By Bethany Krull
    Located in Buffalo, NY
    This wall piece was created by New York artist, Bethany Krull using found drift would and found snail shells. The glistening snail forms are hand sculpted directly onto the wood usi...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures

    Materials

    Clay, Epoxy Resin, Driftwood, Paint, Mixed Media

  • porcelain horse sculpture in pink flowers "Womb" by Bethany Krull
    By Bethany Krull
    Located in Buffalo, NY
    This porcelain horse wall sculpture is hand-built without the use of molds by New York artist Bethany Krull and floats peacefully in a womb-like nest of pink silk flowers.
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures

    Materials

    Mixed Media, Porcelain

  • Porcelain and Earthenware "Bowl-back Beetle" by Bethany Krull
    By Bethany Krull
    Located in Buffalo, NY
    This hand built porcelain beetle with resilient wire and epoxy clay legs hauling a wheel-thrown earthenware bowl was created by New York artist, Betha...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures

    Materials

    Wire

  • Porcelain Snail Wall Piece "Habitat for Adorning Human Habitats", Bethany Krull
    By Bethany Krull
    Located in Buffalo, NY
    This beautiful wall piece is hand sculpted in porcelain and depicts the habitat of a beautiful glistening snail exploring its environment which includes towering rocks, an outstretch...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures

    Materials

    Porcelain, Mixed Media

Recently Viewed

View All