Thomas Trosch
THOMAS TROSCH
The Charming Mr. Tantalus
May 10, 2003 through June 14, 2003
Fredericks Freiser Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by THOMAS TROSCH. The artist has shown widely in the United States, and was recently included in “LA Post Cool” curated by Michael Duncan at the San Jose Museum of Art. He will be exhibiting a project at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo this fall. This will be Mr. Trosch’s ninth one person exhibition.
Thomas Trosch’s oil paintings of aristocratic ladies with their art collections are luscious and theatrical. With a conspicuous hand-made labor, he mixes purses, dresses, lamps, coffee tables, sculptures, and abstract paintings into storybook Arcadias. Scrapes, scumbles and thick impastos are applied in a dizzying fashion that suggests multiple levels of reading. There is a humor in the mixture of chance and control; in the way everything always has the good manner to dissolve into a brilliant passage of painterly excess. Yet, like in the work of other clunky sophisticates such as Malcolm Morley or Karen Kilimnik, there is also a notion of childhood experience and dreams coupled with adult desire and anxiety.
For this show, Trosch dramatizes key scenes from his own modern day take on the story of King Tantalus who was cursed by the gods for his greed. Tantalus was a show off. For hosting an opulent banquet at which he served food that he stole from Zeus, he was relegated to the worst part of hell. There he was placed in a pool of water and given an unquenchable thirst. Whenever he lowered his head the water receded. A vine of grapes hung above him, but they too were just out of reach. Trosch’s drama focuses on Tantalus’s happier years on earth: the lavish parties, colorful abundance, and brilliant treasure.
Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday; 11am to 6pm. Find more information on Thomas Trosch and our other artists at our new website www.fredericksfreisergallery.com or contact the gallery by telephone at (212) 633-6555, fax at (212) 367-9502 or email at fredericksfreiser@nyc.rr.com