Anthony Mastromatteo

"The Three Body Problem" pink comic book trompe l'oeil of physics phenomenon

2023

One of the most confounding paintings in this exhibition is “The Painting, As Seen by the Wall”. Mastromatteo depicts a bare canvas, framed in reverse, turned-around. He presents the...

"White Picket Fence (Aspirational Memoir)" is inspired by Toni Morison's The Bluest Eye. The focal point is a bright green square, encased with a picket- fence made of white tape. I...

Is NOT is a present day vanitas still life. A meditation on the ephemerality of life and the things we hold dear. The fragility of the statement "time is not money" is represented in...

"Lovely Mary Jane" is a Post-Modern painting inspired by The Bluest Eye by Toni Morison. Lovely Mary Jane is a candy wrapper, taped to a blue wall. It’s trash, glorified. But this is not a political statement about commercialism or recycling. This painting was inspired by one of the top 10 banned books across the country, Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” which is about a young black girl who wishes she had blue eyes, an envy shaped from her love of her favorite candy, Mary Jane. It’s a heartbreaking notion caused by an ideal of beauty perpetuated by a marketing campaign for a sweet treat. Classical painting also hails a certain ideal of beauty… and one wouldn’t usually find something as insignificant as a candy wrapper as the focal point of their pièce de résistance. However, Mastromatteo is asking us to see that here is power in idealization, especially in something so seemingly throwaway. He’s prodding us to be more aware…to make people aware of the significance of the seemingly insignificant. The one power an artist possesses is that of forcing the viewer to look at something of his choosing…and in this case he’s asking us to look at something that may be garbage. Consider Maurizio Cattelan, whom in 2019 taped a banana to the wall with duct tape, and it later sold for $120,000…art forces the viewer to consider something that everyone is telling you to look at. Mastromatteo’s candy wrapper is taped up to the wall in a similar fashion as Cattelan’s banana…if we look long enough at the tape, we’ll notice it’s resemblance to the “not-equal” sign...

A painting from the popular "black table" series by Darius Yektai.

"Purple Falling Flowers' is abstract painting of flowers and vines over a pale teal and tan background. Bright green stems tangle together as if the flowe...

Vintage American modernist abstract oil painting by Mark DiVincenzo. Oil on canvas, circa 2005. Signed verso. Unframed.

Elliot Gordon (American) , "The Vases in Tulsa", Post Modern Impressionist Acrylic on Canvas, 30 x 24, Early 21st Century, 2004 Colors: Red, Yellow, White, Blue, Black, Brown, Purpl...

Complex and masterfully thought out the composition of rifle, gun shells, target shapes, and buck shots. Most likely done for a ad or men's magazine. Signed lower right Atherton. Housed in a rustic House of Heydenryk frame...

Early substantial, expressionist abstract still life by Lee Lippman (American 1926-2020). Bursting with color and movement titled "Still life with onions" ...

14 x 12, oil on canvas with wood frame. About the artist: A painter and illustrator, Peters’ work has been shown nationally for over a decade. In his most recent series, Peters has...

Jennifer Hornyak was born in England, where she studied at the Grimsby School of Art before coming to Canada. For more than forty years, her work has been exhibited in prestigious ga...