Anna Zorina Gallery is pleased to present Painting in the Dark, a solo exhibition of Baltimore-based artist Tony Shore. The show features the artist's latest paintings that capture vignettes of everyday life rendered on the unconventional support of black velvet. With his distinctive technique blending quotidian imagery with kitsch media, Shore captures the vibrancy of candid life as it unfolds in the shadows.
Shore renders seemingly ordinary moments with vivid majesty. A late night basketball game, a visit to a roadside hot dog joint, a psychic reading emerge from the dense black fabric as if from a dream or memory. These everyday moments take on increased significance when seen through a glowing lens of nostalgia. Capturing these moments with a masterful painting technique elevates the consideration of each scene to a realm of high art.
Through his cinematic approach to framing his compositions, Shore casts the viewer as voyeur. The darkness of the black velvet draws the viewer in to exist within the plane on which each moment is transpiring. We are afforded peeks into the shadows to revel in the chance to glimpse not only the seedy underside of society but also the sincerity of ordinary life.
TONY SHORE (b. 1971, Baltimore, MD) is a faculty member and former Chair of the Painting Department at the Maryland Institute College of Art. He received his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and MFA from Yale University School of Art. He also studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. His Awards include The Walter and Janet Sondheim Prize, The Bethesda Painting Prize, a Baltimore Artist Rubys Grant, several Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards, and a Franz and Virginia Bader Grant. Shore’s work has been featured in exhibitions at institutions including the Baltimore Museum of Art, The Delaware Art Museum, The Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, The Noyes Museum and the Kunstalle Beacon. Tony Shore’s work is included in the permanent collection of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.
