Todd Gordon

Artist Statement

As a perceptual, realist painter, I am committed to the tradition and rigorous practice of working only from observation. The industrial zones in Brooklyn and Queens where I paint possess characteristics which are specifically urban and uniquely American, yet they could just as likely be neighborhoods in any of the Rust Belt towns I remember from my childhood in the Midwest. My personal relationship with each place begins with something I might see that initially interests me on a formal or compositional level - the way a straight road seemingly bends elliptically in space, the expansive curve or color of a bridge, the interplay of graffiti on a corrugated metal fence - and gradually develops or changes significance with each successive visit. Eventually, the focus, subject, or very meaning of the work might shift organically through the openness of the painting process itself. By including as much information as possible, both literally and physically, I attempt to avoid the typical sentimentality common, historically, in most conventional landscape painting.

Bio

Todd Gordon was born in 1970, and is currently living and working in Brooklyn, New York.

Education

1998            M.F.A., The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

1997            Oxbow Summer Program (The School of the Art Institute of Chicago), Saugatuck, MI

1996            Post-Baccalaureate Studio Certificate, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

1992            B.A., Art History, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

1990            Syracuse University, Florence Italy

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2009 Tinney Contemporary, Nashville, Tennessee

2009 George Billis Gallery, New York, New York

Selected Group Exhibitions

2009 Urban Landscapes, George Billis Gallery, New York, NY 

2008 City Lights, George Billis Gallery, New York, NY

2008 Gallery Artists Group Show, George Billis Gallery, New York, NY

2007 Good Night Sun, George Billis Gallery, New York, NY

2006 Summer Invitational, Lequire Gallery, Nashville, TN

2001 Group Show, 14 White Street, New York, NY

1999 Ohio Landscapes, Municipal Gallery, Delaware, OH

1998 Masters Thesis Show, Gallery 2, Chicago, IL

1997 Three From Chicago, Corner Gallery, Oak Park, IL

1996 2.19%, Gallery X, Chicago, IL

1996 Post-Baccalaureate Exhibition, Gallery 2, Chicago, IL

1995 Figurative Abstraction, Fine Arts Building Gallery, Chicago, IL - juried by Ed Paschke

1992 Northwestern University Annual Art Exhibition, Evanston, IL - awarded Best of Show

Selected Bibliography

Maddox, David.  "Best in Art 2006", Nashville Scene, December, 2006

Lequire Gallery.  Todd Gordon, 2006

Soltes, Fiona.  Review, The Tennessean, July, 2006.

Read, Randy.  "Places to Go People to See," Nashville Arts Magazine, July 2006: 11.

Marx, Jonathan, "Crawling for Art's Sake," The Tennessean, July 16, 2006.

Church Street Freedom Press, Nashville, TN, July 2006.