"Ideal & Martinelli"
2023.3.4

The Wright Contemporary is pleased to present a mini-survey of the works of two dedicated abstract artists from Santa Fe, NM. 


Tom Martinelli originally hails from New York, where he studied at Hunter College with Ron Gorchov and Sandy Wurmfeld, and was soon showing with the prestigious dealer Julian Pretto. He moved to the Santa Fe area in 2006, where he worked with the late Nancy Holt, a founding mother of the Earthworks movement. He is a devoted student of meditation, and many of this works have a transcendent, contemplative aura.


Phillis Ideal grew up in Roswell, NM, and earned her degree from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, but gravitated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she and her husband became involved with the political ideologies of the 1960s and ‘70s. After about five years on the West Coast, Ideal was sufficiently accomplished to land a one-person show at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. She moved to New York, where she still maintains a studio, in 1982, and a few years later to Santa Fe, where she built her present studio and home in 1998.


The Wright Contemporary Gallery
627 Paseo del Pueblo Sur, Taos, New Mexico 87571, USA
(575) 224-0530

Tom Martinelli: Stripe Stain Paintings, 1991-92
2022.12.2

702 1/2 CANYON ROAD, SANTA FE, NM 87501, USA


View the Catalog

Tom Martinelli was born in New York City. His artwork has appeared in numerous solo and group exhibitions in New York, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Pittsburgh, as well as internationally in Vienna, Austria, London, and Manchester, England. Martinelli, who now lives in New Mexico, has been a recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award twice, and a New York Foundation for the Arts grant in photography. His artwork has been reviewed in New York magazine, ARTnews, Modern Painters, New York Times, and Art + Auction. He holds an MFA from Hunter College and a BFA from the School of Visual Arts. His work appears in WTP Vol. VIII #6. Has taught studio art at Yale University, Hunter College and the New School.
Pecha Kucha: Is It Done Yet?
2021.2.6

A presentation on release and resolution in the painting studio, Tom’s presentation will explore the quintessential moment when a painter knows his painting is complete.

Vasari 21: Under the Radar... Tom Martinelli
2020.11.12

https://vasari21.com/tom-martinelli/


An article by Ann Landi in the Under the Radar column in online art journal Vasari 21. Published October 3, 2020. 

Tom Martinelli: The Art of Non-Measured Geometry
2020.11.12
Tom Martinelli - Woven Tale Press Vol.VIII #6
2020.11.12
The Creative Imperative Video Project, Artist Tom Martinelli - Inspiration, Experience, Perspective
2020.5.22

An off-the-cuff, unedited, impromptu interview conducted by writer/filmmaker Marcia Butler in May, 2020, Santa Fe, New Mexico.


Marcia interviews musicians, writers, actors, artists and dancers to discover how creativity manifests in their lives and why their work is meaningful and vital for the world.
 

Transcendental
2020.2.16

Transcendental

Odetta Gallery Harlem

February 16 - April 30, 2020


Neo Geo Now
2019.12.20

NEO GEO NOW
WEBSTER + KESSLER COLLABORATION
54½ Lincoln Avenue Santa Fe, NM 87501
December 20, 2019 – February 29, 2020 

THE WEBSTER COLLECTION and YLISE KESSLER FINE ART are pleased to announce the first in a series of collaborative exhibitions, NEO GEO NOW. The exhibition includes artists Ben Dallas, Eric Garduño, Damien Hoar de Galvan, Jill Levine, and Tom Martinelli. Geometry is said to study the properties, measurement, and relationships of points, lines, angles, surfaces, and solids. The artists in the show utilize geometric principles in their unique interpretative processes. Plywood, spackle, paint and glaze are the some of the materials Ben Dallas incorporates to create his wall-mounted sculptures.

In his new series, Ta Daa, Dallas juxtaposes striped rectangular elements in the foreground with an abstract background resulting in theatrical presentations that are both formal and witty. The viewer often meets Damien Hoar De Galvan’s sculpture with a smile. Made of primarily recycled materials, the work explores values and emotions in a colorful, almost playful presentation.

Eric Garduño in describing his lush charcoal drawings writes, “I am interested in how visual elements such as pattern and contrast have been used throughout history to communicate power and identity. Simple geometric abstraction has thus become a primary structure for the branding of cultural identity, which is clearly evident in its consistent use in national flags, coat of arms, and all manor of corporate logos.”

Historical Latin American art forms, motifs, and color have been a major influence in Jill Levine’s art making. Levine’s deft use of styrofoam, plaster-dipped gauze, and modeling compound allow her to create sculptures and tablets with a personal, visual language and vocabulary.

For the past several years, ellipses and circles have been the dominant motif in Tom Martinelli’s optical paintings. Martinelli is a colorist at heart and his use of both acrylic and fluorescent acrylic paints produce paintings that pop with their color combinations, depth, and simplicity.

Double Vision: Artists Who Instagram
2019.2.1

Double Vision Artists Who Instagram

Curated by JANICE CASWELL and ERICK JOHNSON
FEBRUARY 7 – MARCH 9, 2019
 
The Teaching Gallery,
Hudson Valley Community College Troy, New York

Beyond Black and White
2017.12.20

Beyond Black and White
an exhibition organized by Henry Brown and Li Trincere
Jan. 6-27, 2018
Opening reception: Sat., Jan.6th, 6-8pm
Westbeth Gallery
55 Bethune St. (at Washington St.) NYC

Double Vision: Artists Who Instagram
2017.9.7

Double Vision: Artists who Instagram
organized by Erick Johnson and Janice Caswell

LABspace
2642 NY Route 23 just west of NY Route 22 in Hillsdale, NY
September 16th - October 7
Opening reception for the artists from 5-7pm
gallery hours: 11-5 Saturday and by appointment

Rosaire Appel, Janice Caswell, Erick Johnson, Mary Lum, Tom Martinelli, Liz Nielsen, Chris Sauter, Karen Schifano, Karen Schiff
 
Artists have long turned to photography as a means of augmenting their studio practice or as an end in itself. But today so many of us have a camera on hand and numerous ways to instantly display, share, edit and store images, changing how we interact with what we see.
 
“Double Vision: Artists who Instagram” investigates the sometimes blurred line between studio and street. When the artist leaves the studio, what do they “see” and what do they photograph? Is it an extension of their vision, a corollary practice, or something in between? How do the two feed each other?
 
The curators, artists who are active Instagram users themselves, became aware of many others who are taking photos that seem directly connected to the art they make. Their photographs clearly relate to their studio work, though none of these artists consider themselves photographers or envision their photographs being presented as their art.
 
This show pairs the artists’ studio work with a sampling of the photographs they’ve shared on Instagram, allowing the two to coexist in the gallery space and highlighting their connections to
each other.
 

The Color and The Shape
2017.3.6

The Color and The Shape:
A Survey of Contemporary Geometric Painting


Dord Fitz Gallery
West Texas A&M University

March 20 to April 14, 2017

Ann Landi, Vasari 21
2017.2.27
Artsy review, Alexxa Gotthardt - Vertical Stripes
2015.12.21

Alexxa Gotthardt
"Tom Martinelli’s Abstract, Optically Laced Paintings Ask Viewers to Look More Closely"
Artsy.net, Jan. 12, 2015 

Tom Martinelli: Vertical Stripe Paintings
2014.11.1

Brooklyn Rail announcement

Tom Martinelli: Vertical Stripe Paintings
David Richard Gallery
Nov. 28 - Jan. 10, 2014

Julian Pretto Gallery - Minus Space
2013.9.6

Participating Artists
Rene Pierre Allain, Roberta Allen, Taka Amano, Carl Andre, Stephen Antonakos, Robert Barry, Tom Brazelton, Farrell Brickhouse, Rosemarie Castoro, Peter Downsbrough, Kathy Drasher, Gail Fitzgerald, Suzan Frecon, Cris Gianakos, Christian Haub, Nancy Haynes, Marcia Hafif, Betsy Kaufman, Melissa Kretschmer, Gary Lang, Ellen Lanyon, Christopher Lea, Julian Lethbridge, Daniel Levine, Sol Lewitt, Tom Martinelli, Gregory Montreuil, Olivier Mosset, Mary Obering, Antonella Piemontese, Donald Powley, Lucio Pozzi, Daniel Reynolds, Stephen Rosenthal, DM Simons, Phil Sims, Cary Smith, Steven Steinman, Li Trincere, Ted Victoria, Merrill Wagner, Oliver Wasow, Stephen Westfall, Robert Yasuda, John Zinsser & others
MINUS SPACE is delighted to present the survey exhibition Julian Pretto Gallery. Organized in collaboration with artist John Zinsser, this is the first exhibition to examine the history and legacy of gallerist Julian Pretto (1945-1995) and his fabled downtown New York galleries, active during the mid-1970s through the mid-1990s.

Peter Frank, Haiku Review - Huffington Post
2013.6.12

Peter Frank
Haiku Reviews: From Atmospheric Abstractions To Semi-Operas
Huffington Post, June 12, 2013

Tom Martinelli: Out of Register, 1993-1998
2013.3.25
Op-Art UK feature
2013.3.22

The UK site Op-Art UK did a feature on some of my work in 2013.
http://www.op-art.co.uk/2013/06/tom-martinelli/

Seeing Red - David Richard Gallery
2012.5.18

SEEING RED 
A GROUP EXHIBITION FEATURING ARTWORK BY:
GABRIELE EVERTZ, BEVERLY FISHMAN, HARMONY HAMMOND, MAXWELL HENDLER, TIM JAG, MATSUMI KANEMITSU, TOM MARTINELLI, SCOTT MALBAURN, JULIAN STANCZAK, YOZO SUZUKI, ROBERT SWAIN, LEO VALLEDOR 

David Richard Gallery
May 18 - June 23, 2012
 
Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. 
Opening reception: Friday, May 25th 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m 

New Mexico Showcase - 516 GAllery
2012.1.18
Particles & Orbs - Phil Space
2011.7.27

Particles & Orbs
Tom Martinelli and James Hart
July 29 - Aug. 27, 2011

Phil Space, Santa Fe NM