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Brian Gross Fine Art

May 5 - July 2, 2011

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49 Geary Street 5th Floor San Francisco, CA 94108
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Tony Berlant
Veteran Los Angeles artist, Tony Berlant opens an exhibition of new works at Brian Gross Fine Art on Thursday, May 5, with a reception from 5:30 to 7:30pm. Berlant is renowned for his brilliantly colored metal collages on panel, which range from literal landscapes to pure abstractions. This new work turns toward the mystical, drawing on Eastern spiritual influences to create complex, transcendental compositions. Included in the exhibition are tall, vertical panels featuring a mysterious goddess figure that appears and disappears throughout the work. This goddess image appeared to Berlant when he photographed a section of the plywood floor in his studio and digitally altered the image to create a Rorschach effect. Berlant uses this manipulated image as a ground for several works, with varying amounts of overlaying collage in symmetrical compositions that seem to reference Eastern religious image and pattern, such as found in Tibetan thangkas. In other works, Berlant uses photographic imagery as a ground for abstract collages that reference landscapes and provide hints of figurative elements within heavily disrupted picture planes. Contrast between the sharply defined metal elements in the foreground and blurred background images give the compositions a great sense of depth and dimensionality.