Tom Sanford, artist's statement and portfolio May, 2010

Tom Sanford - Damien Hirst, Memento Mori

This project aims to present the artist’s statements of visual artists who have received instruction in writing them through Master of Fine Arts terminal degree programs with a representative portfolio of their related work, thereby demonstrating a particular relationship between words and images in visual art. Artists with the MFA who are living, teaching, working or exhibiting on Long Island are invited to participate in this project with their exemplary current artist’s statement (less than 1000 words) and images for possible publication. Please comment on this article to make contact.

 My portrait paintings of celebrities use an ironic juxtaposition of contemporary celebrities within the familiar formal constraints of various historical painting idioms. That is to say that I depict contemporary hip hop stars within the framework of a early Christian Icon painting, or teen pop idols in the manner of a renaissance portrait, or crib a composition from a Weimar era German expressionist painting when painting the celebrity art dealer du jour. My intentions in making these paintings are convoluted, however I think that it is clear that the paintings are kitsch, and by being so they address issues of class and taste. The images are intended to be accessible and easily understandable using the visual acumen that is common to all participants in our highly evolved and sophisticated, information rich, media culture. They are populist images and are meant to undermine hegemonic notions of high-low taste distinctions.

The subjects that I choose are intended to further facilitate this communication. Celebrities represent a cultural common denominator in that most people who participate in the globalized American mono-culture understand who these people are and what they symbolize. Most of us understand the difference in significance between Lil'Wayne and Kim Kardashian. The difference between Lil' Wayne and Michael Jackson is more nuanced, but every American high-school student understands it. Through the lexicon of celebrity we can address important issues such race, class, death and sex in a sophisticated way, while not excluding people from the conversation.

Along with the overt sociopolitical agenda, my work also attempts to describe the context that is made in. I believe that in order to make a work of art that is important for posterity, the work must describe some aspect its’ own time and place with truth and accuracy. It is with this in mind that I tend to pick subject matter that will seem dated very quickly. I think that my paintings and their subject matter reflect the values of our culture, and communicate my own ambivalence about this condition.

One of the anxieties that I have about my work is a frustration with the competitive disadvantage that the individual has when going up against a culture of corporation and commodification. My choice to address a very disposable subject matter (celebrities & current events) in a very slow fashion (oil painting) highlights this frustration and speaks to the condition of the painter in contemporary society. Much like Sisyphus I make paintings only to have them be obsoleted by the 24 hour news cycle and a culture hungry for novelty before I even finish. But this problem is by design and I am comforted every time I visit the museum and marvel at paintings of great and important people who we have forgotten, but the importance of the paintings remain, only increasing over time.
 

Tom Sanford in an alternate persona

 Tom Sanford received his MFA from Hunter College in 2006. He has exhibited internationally, and his work will soon be seen on Long Island at the Nassau County Museum of Art “Contemporary Currents” group show organized by Elaine Berger for NCMA’s Contemporary Collectors Circle in the Contemporary Gallery June 5, 2010 to September 12, 2010. Sanford is currently represented in New York by Leo Koenig Inc., in Copenhagen / Beijing by Galleri Faurschou, and in Brussels by Galerie Erna Hecey.

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