John Torreano

Art Brokerage: John Torreano American Artist: John Torreano is an American artist, best known for utilizing faceted gems in a variety of mediums and methods in order to create "movement oriented perception" in his works. Torreano grew up in a large Catholic family which influenced his artistic practice; the usage of jewels serve as a metaphor for vigil lights. Other religious influences appear in his pieces as well. In recent years his paintings have used gems to create space-like constellations. Throughout his career, Torreano has investigated the properties of real and fake gemstones in the differing contexts of lighting, placement and materials. Artist Richard Artschwager described Torreano's works as "Paintings that stand still and make you move." As John explains his work, "Concepts of the Universe and Astronomical images have been a rich source for my painting since 1969. I discovered, early in my journey as a painter, that ideas such as curvature and the big bang made more sense to me than contemporary art theory. Painting is both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional, visual and physical, spatial and flat. Oxymoronic themes thread throughout this installation with black plywood diamonds, a gold black hole and a painting about dark matter and the paradox of the infinite and finite." Listings wanted.