Britton Tolliver
Britton Tolliver is a dynamic contemporary artist currently living and working in Los Angeles, California. The artist's early work explores geometric slices and angular lines, suggesting an infinite layering of planes. More recently, the artist’s work combines both gestural and geometric abstraction. Evident are conceptual references to Minimalism and Constructivism through Tolliver’s use of the grid, a structure that appears serially throughout many works.
In contrast to the formal structure of the grid, explored and defined in earlier sub-movements of Modernism, Tolliver’s interpretation is created in reverse. The artist forms this structure by masking off a detailed, multi-colored under-painting, which becomes the lattice of the framework. On this, Tolliver applies a layer of opaque monochromatic paint to create the network’s interior cubes. Any sense of the grid as a restraining device is deconstructed by Tolliver’s strident and gestural brushstrokes beneath the surface, creating a sense of movement and interrupting the grid’s regularity. Boldly confident, Britton Tolliver’s paintings subvert formal positions and open up new vistas.
Tolliver has held solo shows at galleries across the United States including Luis De Jesus in Los Angeles, CA; Left Field Gallery in San Luis Obispo, CA; Joshua Liner Gallery in New York, NY; and …
Britton Tolliver is a dynamic contemporary artist currently living and working in Los Angeles, California. The artist's early work explores geometric slices and angular lines, suggesting an infinite layering of planes. More recently, the artist’s work combines both gestural and geometric abstraction. Evident are conceptual references to Minimalism and Constructivism through Tolliver’s use of the grid, a structure that appears serially throughout many works.
In contrast to the formal structure of the grid, explored and defined in earlier sub-movements of Modernism, Tolliver’s interpretation is created in reverse. The artist forms this structure by masking off a detailed, multi-colored under-painting, which becomes the lattice of the framework. On this, Tolliver applies a layer of opaque monochromatic paint to create the network’s interior cubes. Any sense of the grid as a restraining device is deconstructed by Tolliver’s strident and gestural brushstrokes beneath the surface, creating a sense of movement and interrupting the grid’s regularity. Boldly confident, Britton Tolliver’s paintings subvert formal positions and open up new vistas.
Tolliver has held solo shows at galleries across the United States including Luis De Jesus in Los Angeles, CA; Left Field Gallery in San Luis Obispo, CA; Joshua Liner Gallery in New York, NY; and CAGOLDEN in Chicago, IL. He has also participated in a number of group shows at galleries including Gallery ALSO in Los Angeles, CA; CES Gallery in Los Angeles, CA; Green Gallery in Milwaukee, WI; Werkartz in Los Angeles, CA; Cordesa Fine Art in Los Angeles, CA; Torrance Art Museum in Torrance CA; Durden & Ray in Los Angeles, CA; Hilger Contemporary in Vienna, Austria; GAVLAK Gallery in West Palm Beach, FL; Joshua Liner Gallery in New York, NY, and more. In 2008, Tolliver was an Altoids Emerging Artist Award Nominee at the New Museum in New York.
Courtesy of Joshua Liner Gallery
