TYRELL COLLINS
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
Summer Group Show Cecile Moochnek Gallery, Berkeley, CA, 2007 Along the Five Cecile Moochnek Gallery, 2007 A Gift of Art Cecile Moochnek Gallery, 2006 August, August Cecile Moochnek Gallery, 2004 Methods and Materials Aedicule, San Francisco 2004 A Gift of Art Cecile Moochnek Gallery, 2004 Member Show Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley 2003 (Honorable Mention) A Gift of Art Cecile Moochnek Gallery, 2002 The Poetics of Space Cecile Moochnek Gallery, 2002 The Art of Collecting Sonoma Museum of Visual Arts, Santa Rosa 2002 Color and Light Christensen Heller Gallery, Oakland 2001 New Visions Pro Arts, Oakland, 2001 New Visions Pro Arts, Oakland, 2000 Times Ten Heritage Square, Emeryville, 2000 Origins Gallery 21, Santa Ana, Ca. l997 Open Studios Oakland, June 2007, 2006 Open Studios Oakland, June 1999-2004 Open Studios Oakland, June l997, 1996
My work has also been represented by Valerie Cathcart Contemporary, San Francisco, 2000 - 2004
I am currently working on a two-painting commission for the Palo Alto Medical Center.
EDUCATION:
San Francisco Art Institute 1991-93
Princeton Art Association: Princeton, N.J. 1982-86
University of Houston, BA 1976
ARTIST STATEMENT
As is the case with many painters, much of my attention and interest are focused on the phenomenon of light: actual light, the illusion of light, light coming through the paint, light reflecting off of the paint, problems of reflection, and of course, problems of how to properly light the painting once it is hung.
For several years, I worked only with transparent oil colors on gesso. For several more, I experimented with gold and copper leaf and oil paint. I discovered bronze and aluminum powders and used them with oil paint to create a lovely, luminescent surface. The powder allowed for a more painterly approach than the leaf, and was more to my liking. Looking for an alternative to this highly toxic metal powder, I tried ground mica, which is safer to work with, yet shares with metal powder the capacity of retaining a reflective quality when mixed with oil paint.
I worked with powdered mica for almost a decade, in a laborious process consisting of alternating the powder and transparent oil glazes on a wood panel in dozens of layers, to create atmospheric abstraction with highlights that shifted throughout the course of the day.
In 2005 I purchased some aluminum panels. I immediately discovered that the aluminum provided a wonderful drawing environment, and found myself returning to my realistic roots. The metal shining through the paint suggested etching plates, and the work itself had an etching-like quality. I pursue this suggestion and ambiguity by cropping the work and leaving some of the metal exposed.
The aluminum panels are anodized and they will not oxidize, or change in any way over time. The surface of the metal provides one big challenge: I must do each painting in one sitting. Once the paint has dried, I cannot add wet paint. If I do, the wet paint will remove the dry paint.