“Bird Man’s Higher Power” by Tobias
ARTIST BIO:
Tobias is a painter and a potter. He received a VSA MN Emerging Artist Grant in 2016 and a Social Commentary Award for in 2014 for his Memorial Project. The project gives voice to individuals of the past who lived with mental illness and lost their identities because of institutionalization. He has two associates’ degrees: one in Fine Art and one in Computer Animation. Tobias has exhibited with People Incorporated, The Show Gallery, Avivo, Fall Out Art Galllery, and alternative spaces throughout the Twin Cities. You can find him painting at Avivo and doing ceramic work at Fall Outs Arts Initiative.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
I have been an artist my whole life, working with clay since I was a kid. I would dig up clay in the yard and make sculptures out of it. Now, I primarily use a potter’s wheel. When painting, I usually use acrylic on large canvases. Recently, I have been creating pointillist nature paintings, surrealist landscape paintings, and cubist abstract nudes.
For my pointillist works I start with close up photographs taken from nature. These are based on photos of animals, bugs, and plants.This artwork is about how having an appreciation for nature is actually a good thing. It is important to value nature in that without an appreciation for it we lack motivation to properly take care of it. My concept goes against ideas that loving nature is somehow the cause of mistreating it.
The abstract nudes that I paint also have beauty. They are cubist in how they are made, studying the human figure from three different perspectives. I focus on line quality and mass gestures instead of cubes when I create these however.
In the surrealist paintings I create I rely on pictures taken of interesting rock formations and landscapes. One of the reasons I create surreal paintings is because of the dreamlike quality of surrealist art. Dreams have meanings so when there is a specific topic to address I am likely to express my point of view through surrealist art.
As a potter my focus is on creating memorial art in the form of funeral urns and pet urns. I also make functional ceramic art, from mugs, catchall bowls, aromatherapy diffusers, and chopstick bowls.
Lastly, as an artist it has become important for me to create artwork that provides social commentary. I am interested in the topics of stigma and the mistreatment of people suffering from mental illnesses. The art project that I am currently working on I named Marginalized Memorial. It consists of portraits and funeral urns dedicated to people who were removed from society and institutionalized. My inspiration for the portraits and the urns stems from the lack of proper gravestones that people were given when they died at state run hospitals.
PROVIDED BY:
Avivo Artworks
Since 2004, Avivo ArtWorks, formerly Spectrum ArtWorks, has been working to support professional artists living with mental illness. Located at the Lighthouse, a Community Support Program in Minneapolis, the program meets its mission through a community-focused and recovery-based approach. Its multi-faceted art studio and programming assists artists at reaching and maintaining their artist-related goals such as making new art, connecting with other artists, and accessing exhibition and grant opportunities.
In addition to this, each year the program organizes a new exhibition that aims to meet its mission to challenge stigma and raise mental health awareness. In 2015, the program partnered with the Minneapolis Institute of Art to bring “In Conversation,” a residency and exhibition that featured 17 artists from the program. Each participant created a new piece of art that was in conversation with an object or artwork in the museum’s collection. In 2017, Avivo ArtWorks facilitated “The Big Picture,” a group exhibition that presented artwork that explored wellness in recovery through art. “To Really See,” opening August 2017 at the Hennepin County Library – Central Minneapolis, is Avivo ArtWorks first every traveling group exhibition. The show explores the medication-taking experience and will feature artwork from artists who use Avivo ArtWorks services and artists from across the state of Minnesota.