Photograph by Stephen Kobasa
Intersection of Infinity and Now, 2001, acrylic on wood
Tony Kosloski
Images of human figures are attached to two of the Pioneer spacecraft now moving beyond our solar system nearly 40 years after their launching. There are passages in Tony Kosloski’s work which suggest messages being sent in the other direction.
Here are assorted revisions of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian man, one a free standing painted figure with steel shackles at the ankles substituting for the confinement of classical proportions. Another a figure that careens through the universe, outlined like some galactic crime scene.
Think of these as pages from a comic book on infinity, in a vaguely manga style, with starmen and sprockets. In one, a view through what might be some spaceship porthole, the shreds of a flying carpet are still airborne. In another, with a zigzag out of Navaho weaving, a chart of water currents is overlaid upon a background of constellations.
Photograph by Stephen Kobasa
Kosmic River #6, 1996, acrylic on paper
Canvases on several inch deep stretchers become time machine boxes, or surfaces for a Philip Guston helix that could double as a child’s balloon, or a memorial to the astronaut’s eye in the penultimate scenes of “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Several painted wood forms resemble icons awaiting future saints.
Curiosity invites threats, but it is one of the few trustworthy defenses against passivity. All the gilded questions in these paintings, both literal and implied, could be summarized by the Talking Heads lyric: “You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?” As Kosloski’s work makes clear, it is crucial to ask, even if it turns out that there is no answer.
Contact the artist at 369ask(at)gmail(dot)com. Much of the work is currently on view at the newly founded Karma Gallery, 65 Elm St. West Haven through Feb. 5.