July 19th • Anthony Alston Artist Reception

My work tends to involve aspects of the aleatoric, opportunistic, and transitory. Themes/motifs gravitate around predictability, perseverance, and insipidness. Sometimes loosely organized and systematic processes cajole a semblance of cohesion and continuity from ostensible serendipity, happenstance, or randomness. Sometimes ideas are left nascent, nondescript, and open-ended.

Using an interdisciplinary approach, the conceptual underpinning of any given project ultimately determines its own medium. The myriad of milieu between uninhabited natural ecosystems and developed urban environments constitute primary points of creation for pieces, a fragment of which remain in situ where created. Documentation via photos, sound, and video attempt to more permanently fix otherwise ephemeral interventions. Projects are often deceptively minimal, or, recursively layered; relics and distortions becoming magnified by each subsequent generation and permutation, a literal and figurative patina of inherent artifacts iteratively speckling any given piece.

Comparison and contrast act as admittedly simplistic, reductive means to reconcile oblique personal references with overt universal symbolism. Ultimately, many of the metaphors formed permit both comprehension and misunderstandings to manifest, intentional and incidental insights to be gleaned, begetting a slovenly poetry tenuously attempting to balance internal—oft fatally flawed—logic with an overwhelming wholeness of heart.

 

Anthony Alston grew up in Reno, graduating from UNR earning a BFA with emphasis on digital media and sculpture. After years working as an arts administrator/public art technician and volunteering with non-profits, he completed residencies in Virginia City, NV and Hill End, Australia. His antipodean sojourn extended as he continued his education at the Sydney College of Arts. A near-fatal climbing accident in the Blue Mountains—in consort with the untimely closure of the school—prevented him from procuring his MFA; however, he remained creatively active during convalescence, and has pursued artistic endeavors with renewed vigor since returning to reside in the Truckee Meadows.

Ongoing support from the Nevada Arts Council has facilitated personal projects throughout his career. This exhibition was made possible with funds furnished by a Project Grant.