2905 San Gabriel, Ste 101  /  Austin, Texas 78705
tel. 512.454.6671  /  fax. 512.454.9560

Tony Saladino:
TERRAIN / An Abstracted View of the Landscape

View the artist's work

email: [email protected]

The process of perception is revealed clearly when Tony Saladino describes it in a painting. He has the rare gift of creating a work of art that dawns on the viewer at a random pace, like shadow-patterns cast by clouds as they move swiftly across the land. This is exactly how a primary impression works: the whole scene may be taken in at once, but the deeper vision comes through more gradually as the details emerge.

Saladino's paintings are beautifully finished but not final. Rather than presenting his images as definitive statements and his ideas as firm conclusions, he allows his art to breathe. One is given room enough and time to get inside the work and take it in a personal direction. This is the very definition of comprehension. It is the essence of communication as well.

Saladino's colors are warm and high-keyed, yet subtle. His way with blue, in particular, is an invitation to infinity. His brushwork is extremely painterly. His subjects range from pure abstraction to the recognizable forms of landscape and still life enriched with geometric elements. The artist does not confine himself to a conventional rendition of the natural world because the particulars of any given place hold limited interest for him. He is more interested in the visual qualities, such as light and dark values or color harmonies. Shifting planes, like changing light, suggest vast windows or archways framing mountains, trees, and lakes. Reflections play upon other reflections, setting up internal harmonies and subtle mysteries. However meticulously painted the landscape or still life may be, these abstract elements tie the painting to the mind.

Structure is also of paramount concern. The prismatic lines that play across the canvases organize the landscape, but they are also strongly architectural. Saladino is interested in how things are built, and he incorporates the idea of enclosure as a way of describing the interface between the natural and built environments, or the relationship between representational and abstract forms. These linear elements and carefully orchestrated divisions of space are particularly effective in the more abstract compositions.

Saladino emerged as an artist in much the same way that his paintings emerge into being. As a very young man, he pursued conventional endeavors until a friend gave him a set of paints. His reaction was visceral and instantaneous. From that moment on, he honed his skills single-mindedly. His art career progressed in stages. From two artist friends, he learned fine printmaking and became adept at etching, mezzotint, engraving, drypoint, and other techniques. Gradually, he built a gallery business, which he operated until he felt ready to devote all his time to his art and allow other galleries to represent him. His work found its way into important public collections, and wider recognition followed.

Tony Saladino's success is due to his steady focus on the deeper questions of life rather than the more common concerns of appearance. Each painting speaks of its own history, referring to the process that brought it into being even when that process is not visible in the finished work. As the chaos of nature is resolved into a universal order, so Saladino's paintings celebrate the triumph of imagination over the unknowable.

- Suzanne Deats
Arts Critic/Writer

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