Toby Rosser

ABOUT THE PAINTINGS
I am not interested in rendering or illustrating specific images. I have become very engrossed in the improvisational drawing, with paint, in reaction to what already exists on a surface.

Desktop computers and printers can easily produce digital imagery solving the problem of having to render any narrative or illustrative elements. Images on paper from a desktop printer function as a structural foundation of the picture and very often are completely negated giving way to a more cathartic process of painting predominately with line.

This process produces imagery of a more primitive or abstract nature.

When pasted onto stretched canvas, or any supportive surface, the paper printouts produce a type of neglected billboard to paint on. I do not consciously choose imagery because of any subjective, editorial or symbolic aspect. Images are usually chosen for qualities such as structure, shape, basic form or color. They are applied to the canvas individually or collaged with other images.

This allows me to draw with paint on top of this imagery responding to it with grid type line work. The computer generated imagery becomes more subtle but is still a variable of the work. I may also print out the image again and paste it on top of the painted surface.

There are no pre-determined themes or subjects in these paintings. I have been naming these paintings after various cities around the world when they are completed.

ABOUT THE STEEL FABRICATIONS
The standing figures and running man pieces are created as 2 dimensional designs on a computer. The designs are then cut out of cold rolled steel with a computer driven plasma cutter. Some pieces are welded from stock steel of different dimensions.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2005 - "Tri-State Juried Exhibition". Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, N.Y.

2002 - "Prevailing Human Spirit, The 9/11 Exhibition". Society of Illustrators NYC.

2001 - "Take Heart", MPI 49 West 23rd St. NYC.

1999 - Aquent Partners "Digital Meets Traditional", Norwalk, CT.

1992 - McKensie & Company, Amenia, New York.

1991 - Gallery Sareido, 382 West Broadway, New York, NY.

1983 - Small Walls Gallery, New York, NY.

1981 - 9th Street Survival Show, New York, NY.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2003 - Salisbury Art Center, Salisbury, CT

1978 - Valsamos Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.

ARTIST BIO

2000 - Establishes studio in Ridgefield, CT.

1987 - Establishes and manages artists group studio in Jersey City, NJ.

1978 - BFA Sculpture Pratt Institute, NY., Carl Andre, senior year instructor.