Artist Spotlight - Anthony Tremmaglia — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Biography

My work offers formal and textural qualities that both confound and intrigue, inviting the viewer to upend assumptions, to step closer, and to consider the renderings in new ways. I challenge the conventions of art making in two-dimensional works that appear sculptural, and with hand-rendered forms that may be initially mistaken for photographs or digital manipulation.

Common Matter , Charcoal , Acrylic, 1152.4 x 101.6 cm Anthony Tremmaglia, 2024, Acrylic Charcoal on paper mounted to wood

However, my intent is not to deceive; rather, I welcome prolonged contemplation in a time marked by superficial analysis. Once engaged, viewers may sense a contradiction between rough stone and smooth flesh as symbolic of relationships (with the self or with others)

Folding The Moon, Charcoal , Acrylic, 109.22 x 165.1 cm Anthony Tremmaglia, 2024, Acrylic Charcoal on paper mounted to wood

or they may prefer a tension between representation and abstraction — one containing both stark, unknowable shapes and the refuge of an imagined landscape. Free of social or gender constructs and contemporary references, my work seeks to heighten consciousness through timelessness.

Turning Time, Charcoal , Acrylic, 121.92x 182.88 cm Anthony Tremmaglia, 2022, Acrylic Charcoal on paper mounted to wood, Framed in 3/16th Plexi-glass

Artist Statement

Recent Series 2024 Common Matter In his new series titled Common Matter, Anthony Tremmaglia draws parallels to and connects with his ancestry, referencing both the passionate history of the Greco Roman-based sculptures and the artist’s current lived experience with those around him.

Me to You, Charcoal , Acrylic, 101.6 x101.6cm cm Anthony Tremmaglia, 2023, Acrylic Charcoal on paper mounted to wood, Framed in 3/16th Plexi-glass

The artist has chosen to celebrate and reflects on the love that he has shared with those closest to him and on what he has lost, ultimately choosing not to focus on absence but on celebration in these works by drawing parallels of the past to the present. Through these paintings, Tremmaglia builds bridges to landmark achievements in art history such as Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne.

This Way Around , Acrylic, Charcoal 101.6 x101.6 cm Anthony Tremmaglia, 2022, Acrylic Charcoal on paper mounted to wood, Framed in 3/16th Plexi-glass

He strongly believes that our lives parallel those of the distant past and seeks to connect them. Much like Greek sculpture or any form of sculpture, Tremmaglia’s work engages with the taming of nature through the reworking and polishing of rough stone- but keeping in the illusion of the flat surface. The artist’s use of distorted flesh depicted with chalk, paint, and charcoal symbolizes the passions inherent in these age-old art stories.

Shadow Talk, Acrylic, 81.3 x 121.9 cm Anthony Tremmaglia, 2021, Acrylic Charcoal on paper mounted to wood, Framed in 3/16th Plexi-glass

Tremmaglia maintains his signature figurative landscapes, this time enhanced and deepened with the use of found volcanic mineral and natural mineral from the regions in where he lives in Canada. He has also chosen to highlight the very essence of the mineral itself in some pieces, given the mineral center stage, in these large, abstracted paintings.

You To Me, Charcoal , Acrylic, 101.6 x 101.6 cm Anthony Tremmaglia, 2022, Acrylic Charcoal on paper mounted to wood, Framed in 3/16th Plexi-glass

In earlier works they were seen as resource, but here he brings some of these painting to life. New elements that result in bright, intense hues layered with methodical precision as he continues to investigate, on a single surface, where light, form, and elemental matter collide into one.

www.anthonytremmaglia.com
Instagram: Tremmaglia