TONY OURSLER

February 5 – March 13, 2004

Tony Oursler was born in New York in 1957. He attended the California institute for the Arts in 1979, B.F.A. He lives and works in New York.

Tony Oursler stands as a major figure within the evolution of video art. He was one of the first artists to understand the limitations of the television monitor as the primary framing device for video images, taking them out of the box and making them function in three-dimensions.

Tony Oursler’s work since the beginning of his career, was dominated by themes such as violence, media, drugs, mental illness, pop culture, pollution and how these are reflected on the physicality of the human body. From the early single-channel videos of the 70’s and the 80’s to the dummies of the 90’s that took the place of the screen as a projection surface, the artist concentrated on examining larger questions related to the body in space, sexuality, the communicative power of images and the deconstruction of social and interpersonal relationships.

At the end of the 90’s he begins to concentrate on groups of smaller works such as the Eyes Series and the Talking Heads, where he reduces his ideas to a bare minimum.

This reductivism is evident also in his new works. Using video images projected onto fiberglass sculptures he condenses the human figure into its central, distinguishing essence: the face. By shrinking a full face next to enlarged muttering lips, huge teeth, and detached eyes, he creates a living sculpture that on the one hand is beautiful and humorous and on the other terrifying. These variations of shifting mutable selves, challenge what is sacred in the representation of the human form.

Tony Oursler’s works cannot be read as a horror film or science fiction experiment but as a physical manifestation of an interior psychic battle. His works are so “in our faces” that they engage us in a way that theater, cinema and most video installation cannot.

The gallery remains open Tue-Fri 10:30-20:30, Sat 12:00-16:00.