Gallery Exhibits Work from Two Unexpected Regional Artists
Albany Center Gallery presents Eco Primitive Eco Surreal: Thomas D'Ambrose
and RADICAL! to be held January 7, 2011 through February 12, 2011.
The receptions will take place on Friday, January 7 and February 4 from
6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in congruence with 1st Friday. Albany Center Gallery is
located at 39 Columbia Street between N. Pearl and Broadway in Downtown
Albany, NY.
Thomas D'Ambrose is a self taught artist and received his first Special
Opportunity Stipend through The New York Foundation for the Arts administered
by The Arts Center for the Capital Region in Troy, NY for this exhibit.
D'Ambrose has exhibited at The Lark Street Improvement District and Upstate
Artists Guild, and recently participated in Flux, an multimedia exhibition
at St. Joseph's church curated by Ken Jacobie. A lifetime resident of the
capital district, D’Ambrose has also been musician for the Past 30
years performing with the critically acclaimed group THE SHARKS. He recorded
and performed with Albany rock luminaries BLOTTO and appeared in a BLOTTO
MTV music video. Thomas received his B.S. in Music Education from the College
of St. Rose and M.S. in Educational Communications from the University at
Albany. Over the past few years he has taken an interest in the capital
district art scene and in 2001 co-founded the TRINK Gallery in Cohoes, N.Y.
with Nadia Trinkala and Robert Gullie. His eco-primitive style features
a variety of jungle animals which he transforms into colorful and stylized
primitive representations. Much of his work incorporates vintage wall paper
and found or discarded canvases. Colorful zoological and botanical specimens
are recurring themes throughout his work. D'Ambrose states, "the
vast majority of my work features spectacular zoological and botanical specimens
which I attempt to transform into colorful and stylized primitive representations.
I capture a magical feeling of innocence and wonder for the natural world".
RADICAL! is not the artist's birth name, rather an identity created to embody
the imaginative. A prolific artist, RADICAL! is the youngest to exhibit
in a two person exhibit at Albany Center Gallery. The artist states,
"I work with whatever I can find, and I hope to reach a point someday
where I can pick up anything I see and treat it as a new canvas...my fondness
of the urban landscape dwells inside me, and beckons me". RADICAL!
often incorporates needles and other blunt objects; however, it is never
the artist's intent to promote drugs or violence. Instead, RADICAL'S! use
of illustrative imagery are incorporated to serve as a metaphor for the
lack of societies discomfort to communicate. Before the age of 18, RADICAL!
exhibited all over the world including Artsic Festival at The Haven Wolverhamton
in London, UK, the Re-Use Project II exhibition in Tel Aviv Isreal, Waxploitation:Lost
in Transit in Washington D.C., Everybody Get Up in London, UK and Cut Out
at The Sommercasino in Basel Switzerland. RADICAL'S! artwork has been published
in "We Were Here: a steet book" by After the Fall and "Stickerbomb
2" published by Laurence King Publishers, and he has exhibited his
work locally with the Grand Street Community Arts, The Marketplace Gallery,
and Kismet Gallery to name a few. RADICAL! has also exhibited his work in
Russia, Moscow, and most recently in Rosendale, NY.
