1 Mile Ahead: a painting Exhibit by Anthony Falcetta
Artist Statement
As a child, riding in the backseat of my parents’ car, I would imagine being able to pick up the colorful, chunky shapes of commercial signs and play with them like toys. They were intended to be welcoming landmarks and to grab attention, but they also felt iconic, like monuments — and the longer they’d stood doing their jobs, the more they felt like relics. Seeing a lighted oval or rounded rectangle high up on a skinny pole in the distance felt like arriving in a new land… maybe a land that had ice cream or mini-golf, if I was lucky. The world was still oriented toward the tangible and the material, and signs were everywhere, solid and real, pulling people in from the road to get some of whatever new experience was up for grabs.
These small panels were created as “sandboxes” or experiments, to try out ideas that run through my larger, more complex paintings. They continue an exploration of colors, textures and shapes drawn from weathered commercial signage -- the visual heralds of the cheap motels, gas stations, bars, and strip-malls of the American landscape.
This series is part of a family of related work, started in 2021 as a pandemic-project which could allow me a form of interior “sightseeing” when actual travel was still unwise or impossible. The journey led from large-format paintings on canvas, into a series of constructed paper pieces, and another series of three-dimensional sign-objects, as well as small works like the ones here. The signs and relics of my childhood were important because of their qualities as enduring objects in real space, and the works they inspired are grounded in physicality and object-ness as well.
To see more, stop by my website: www.anthonyfalcetta.com
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Anthony Falcetta’s work speaks a language of texture, vivid color, line, and hard-edged shape, reflecting his experience of inhabiting constructed spaces and the urban/suburban environment. Dedicated to improvisation within the structures of his paintings, Anthony draws inspiration from many places — mundane objects, street architecture, commercial signage, interior and exterior spaces, or even the usual debris of the studio. The languages and internal logics of these everyday elements are brought into the work, layered and transformed, creating painting-situations that are responded to materially, in action. His work stakes out a space in the triangle of what is observed and experienced, what is felt and remembered, and what can be contained in paintings made of simple abstract elements. Viewers are free to travel within this painting-space, and make connections and discoveries on their own.
Anthony is a graduate of Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, and lives and works in Beverly, Massachusetts. His work has been exhibited around New England, New York, Denver and elsewhere, and is included in various private and corporate collections.