Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 8

Tony Dagradi
Strange Shapes Revealed

2017

About the Item

medium: hardcover book, acrylic varnish My decades-long career in contemporary jazz directly informs my work as a visual artist.  Music, for me, has always had a visual component, with the diverse elements of music suggesting colors, shapes, and textures.  The juxtaposition of abstract shapes which come together as I work on a book, is very much how I perceive the interplay of melody, harmony, and rhythm. Improvisation is also key to my approach in both genres.  Within a jazz ensemble, each player is responsible for an individual part which must support and inspire the other musicians.  In the heat of the moment, unexpected phrases or motivic ideas can affect surprising new directions for the collective ensemble.  Similarly, the tension and harmony which naturally occur as I uncover each new image unfailingly impacts the whole and often shifts the form and concept of the emerging composition.     Cutting through each book page by page to expose selected subject matter is primarily a subtractive process.  However, I often choose to reserve certain images for later use.  This too is comparable to the open-ended conversation on the bandstand and provides me with control over the development of each piece. I prefer working with vintage books and encyclopedias.  The eclectic photos and illustrations represent material that is long out of date yet offer a fascinating window into our past.  Ultimately, I hope to provide a perspective on the transitory nature of what earlier generations understood to be factual and offer insight into the way ever-evolving media has shaped contemporary perspectives.
More From This SellerView All
  • Aristotle
    By Tony Dagradi
    Located in New Orleans, LA
    [New Orleans, LA ::: b. 1952 - Queens, NY] materials: hardcover book, acrylic varnish TONY DAGRADI is an internationally recognized jazz performer, artist, composer, author and edu...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

    Materials

    Paper, Varnish

  • Party Line
    By Tony Dagradi
    Located in New Orleans, LA
    [New Orleans, LA ::: b. 1952 - Queens, NY] BIO : TONY DAGRADI is an internationally recognized jazz performer, artist, composer, author and educator. For over three decades he has...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Mixed Media

    Materials

    Paper, Varnish

  • New Century Dictionary pockmark - zymurgy
    By Tony Dagradi
    Located in New Orleans, LA
    [New Orleans, LA ::: b. 1952 - Queens, NY] BIO : TONY DAGRADI is an internationally recognized jazz performer, artist, composer, author and educator. For over three decades he has...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

    Materials

    Paper, Varnish

  • Watchmen
    By Tony Dagradi
    Located in New Orleans, LA
    [New Orleans, LA ::: b. 1952 - Queens, NY] BIO : TONY DAGRADI is an internationally recognized jazz performer, artist, composer, author and educator. For over three decades he has...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Mixed Media

    Materials

    Paper, Varnish

  • Diffusion
    By Tony Dagradi
    Located in New Orleans, LA
    materials: hardcover book, acrylic varnish; New Masters Pictorial Encyclopedia 1962 volumes 1-8 (complete set) --- TONY DAGRADI is an internationally recognized jazz performer, art...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

    Materials

    Wood, Paper, Varnish, Acrylic

  • Boring Machines
    By Tony Dagradi
    Located in New Orleans, LA
    medium: hardcover book, acrylic varnish My decades-long career in contemporary jazz directly informs my work as a visual artist.  Music, for me, has always had a visual component, with the diverse elements of music suggesting colors, shapes, and textures.  The juxtaposition of abstract shapes which come together as I work on a book, is very much how I perceive the interplay of melody, harmony, and rhythm. Improvisation is also key to my approach in both genres.  Within a jazz ensemble...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

    Materials

    Paper, Varnish

You May Also Like
  • Shadow Box
    By Molly McCall
    Located in Sante Fe, NM
    In Home Movies McCall employs the cinematic qualities of found vintage photographs to construct narratives exploring the passage of time, transition, transformation, and loss. Each s...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Varnish, Oil, Vellum, Silver Gelatin

  • LIGHT\TRACE No. 1
    Located in Wien, 9
    In the delicate light installation LIGHT\TRACE No. 1, fibre optics are embedded in white, handmade hand-made paper and gently trace their tracks over the entire surface. The transparent, fine fibre optics subtly emit their light and the viewer's gaze is lost in the superimposed fibre optics, which both diffuse their light and draw it very clearly. This counterplay creates optical depth and ever new...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Mixed Media

    Materials

    Silk, Varnish, Lights, LED Light, Handmade Paper

  • Science and Reason Matter
    By Jaynie Crimmins
    Located in Atlanta, GA
    Shredded and rolled non-profit and political solicitations, health care statements and spray varnish on cradled board. Jaynie Crimmins fabricates objects ...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Abstract Sculptures

    Materials

    Wood Panel, Magazine Paper, Varnish

  • Nevertheless, She Persisted
    By Jaynie Crimmins
    Located in Atlanta, GA
    Shredded and rolled non-profit and political solicitations, health care statements and spray varnish on cradled board. Jaynie Crimmins fabricates objects ...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Abstract Sculptures

    Materials

    Varnish, Wood Panel, Magazine Paper

  • Don't Look Away
    By Jaynie Crimmins
    Located in Atlanta, GA
    Shredded and rolled non-profit and political solicitations, health care statements and spray varnish on cradled board. Jaynie Crimmins fabricates objects ...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Abstract Sculptures

    Materials

    Varnish, Wood Panel, Magazine Paper

  • 'Love Garden Party (Picnic #2), ' Skip Hill, mixed media and ink on paper 2019
    Located in Oklahoma City, OK
    'Love Garden Party (Picnic #2)' is an original mixed-medium work of art composed of high quality acrylics paint, opaque, metallic and neon inks, hand-cut collage, sealed with satin varnish on 36"h x 24"w on cold press paper stock. The painting is framed (41.5"h x 29.5”w.) with conservation quality, high UV-filtering museum glazing. Signed by the artist. Part of Skip Hill's 'Love Garden Party' series, this work depicts three women gathered around a festive table filled with food and drink. Skip Hill was born in 1961 in Padre Island, Texas but grew up primarily in Oklahoma City. After attending Oklahoma City University to study Advertising and Marketing, he worked as a graphic designer before relocating in 1987 to Southern California. A two-week trip to Thailand in 1989 turned into a year traveling throughout Southeast Asia while writing for a business magazine based in Bangkok. In 1990 Skip Hill relocated to the Netherlands, immersing himself in the culture and learning the Dutch language. His frequent visits the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum and The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam as well as the Boijman Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, sparked Hill’s interest in creating art inspired by aesthetic concerns over the strictly commercial art he produced during his advertising career. It was during this time abroad that he traveled through Germany, Czechoslovakia and Morocco. After returning to Oklahoma in 1993, Skip Hill studied formally at The University of Oklahoma with conceptual artist Hachivi Edgar Heap of Birds, and influential abstract painter George Bogart...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Mixed Media

    Materials

    Paper, Varnish, Acrylic, Ballpoint Pen

Recently Viewed

View All