Valton Tyler

Eagle's Nest

1971

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintin...

In The New York Times Arts in America column, Edward M. Gomez wrote of Valton Tyler, "visionary seems the right word for describing his vivid, unusual and technically refined paintings, prints and drawings, whose style defies convenient labels. Abstract, surreal, cartoonish, sci-fi fantastic, metaphysical, apocalyptic-Baroque - all of these fit but also fall short of fully describing his art." (The Living Arts, June 13, 2000, p. B2) Valton Tyler was born in 1944 in Texas, where "the industrial world of oil refineries made a long-lasting impression on Valton as a very young child living in Texas City. He was three years old when the terrible explosion occurred there and can remember the terrifying confusion and 'the beautiful red sky and objects flying everywhere in the air.'" (Reynolds, p. 25) While growing up in Texas City, Valton's father worked in auto repair, and was known for his skill in mixing colors for paint jobs. After leaving Texas City, Valton made his way to Dallas, where he briefly enrolled at the Dallas Art Institute, but found it to be too social and commercial for his taste. After Valton's work was introduced to Donald Vogel (founder of Valley House Gallery), "Vogel arranged for Tyler to use the printmaking facilities in the art department of the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where the young artist essentially taught himself several demanding printmaking techniques. 'It was remarkable,' Vogel says. 'Not only did he learn complicated etching methods, but he was able to express himself powerfully in whatever medium he explored.' Vogel became the publisher of Tyler's prints. Among them, the artist made editions of some 50 different images whose sometimes stringy abstract forms and more solid, architecturally arresting elements became the precursors of his later, mature style." (Gomez, Raw Vision #35, p. 36) “Height...

copper etching with aquatint The power of memory and how it recalls individuality begins in such basic experiences as the ability to link internal ideas to external manifestations of those ideas. Memories as simple as an old toy or a street can set off a chain reaction of thoughts that snowball into issues as broad as nationalism, identity politics or a body politic to name a few. Hector Ruiz’s works encompass the broad, complex and often painful world particular to the Arizona and neighboring Mexican landscape. United States and Mexican border...

Born in 1940 in Shostka, Ukraine, Konstantin Bokov immigrated to New York City in 1974.Born the son of Viktor Bokov, the well known poet who perished in the Soviet gulag, Konstantin Bokov was an accordion player and sheep-herderbefore he became a self-taught artist and expelled dissident. When he appeared at the Morin-Miller Gallery in 1978 bearing a painting of a Tropicana juice carton, Carmen Morin brought it home. Jack Miller remembers his reaction: "We don't buy art, we sell it!" --- then their personal collection of Bokov's work grew to over a hundred pieces. Many paintings, sketches, collages and recycle assemblages were done, It's been said that Bokov’s canvases and recycled pieces offer an image of New York that is both a scathing critique and profession of love. This is especially evident in his pieces "Manhattan Madness (Road Repair)" and his Statue of Liberty series...