Julien Tomasello

Country where you live:

United States

City where you live:

San Francisco Bay

Website:

http://www.JulienToasello.com

Instagram:

http://www.instagram.com/julien.tomasello

Statement :

The Secrets of Summer is an ongoing series of collage-on-panel works. Each work possesses a narrative of “autobiographical fiction”. These narratives blend actual events, dreams, and desires I experienced as an LGBTQ+ youth and young adult, during the 1980’s and 1990’s, with threads of fictions influenced through the books, music, films, television, and art I absorbed during this time. Escapism was a panacea to the isolation and fear I felt during my youth. The world around me seemed steeped in conformity, homophobia, and later, darkness as AIDS began its ravage of the LGBTQ+ community I hoped to become part and made the expression of love seem toxic.

Collage is the medium of choice for my series. Collage was one of the first art practices I fell in love with as a child artist. I now, as I did then, use the pre-existing hues, patterns, and textures of pre-fabricated materials to communicate the world as I (re)envision it. There is intimacy, control, and escape in the meticulousness, obsessiveness, and repetitiveness of my collage method.

Tea with Hockney

2021. Triptych collage on canvas frames (wood, wire, acrylic, watercolor, colored pencil, paper, felt, fabric, ribbon, beads, sequins, photocopies). 24 x 108 x 3”

Work Credit:

Julien Tomasello

The Writing on the Wall [NYC, 1991]

2019. Triptych collage on canvas frames (acrylic, watercolor, colored pencils, paper, fabric, thread, Swarovski Crystals, sequins, plastic tubing, photocopies). 12 x 72 x 2”

Work Credit:

Julien Tomasello

Dream House

2018. Collage on canvas boards mounted on wood panel (acrylic, wood, paper, fabric, thread, Swarovski Crystals, rhinestones, beads, buttons, shells, sequins, photocopies). 12 x 50 x 1”

Work Credit:

Julien Tomasello

Last Dance

2017. Diptych collage on canvas frames (acrylic, paper, fabric, thread, Swarovski Crystals, rhinestones, sequins). 18 x 72”

Work Credit:

Julien Tomasello

Age of Consent (1988)

2015. Triptych collage on canvas frames (acrylic, paper, fabric, safety pins, thread, rhinestones). 9 x 36.5”

Work Credit:

Julien Tomasello

Bio:

I am an American, LGBTQ+, gender-fluid, multi-media artist. I commonly work in collage, sculpture, and video. I was born the youngest of three (males) and raised in rural, conservative, agricultural communities in Southern New Jersey. I used education to help discover the world beyond my doorstep. My study of art took place at Parsons School of Design, New York, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. Select exhibition venues include deYoung Museum, Susquehanna Museum of Art, Lancaster Museum of Art, The Royal Society of American Art, Leonard Pearlstein Gallery at Drexel University, International House Philadelphia, and Stella Elkins Tyler Gallery at Tyler School of Art, Temple University.

In addition to being an artist, I am a New York Times best-selling Art & Photography Editor of the books, Queer Icons and Their Cats (Chronicle Books, 2021), PANTONE on Fashion: A Century of Color in Design (Chronicle Books, 2014), and Co-Author of the book, ART + FASHION: Collaborations and Connections Between Icons (Chronicle Books, 2015). I am a former Photography Editor of OUT magazine in Los Angeles and New York. I am an Art Educator and I live and create in the San Francisco Bay Area of California.