In Imaginating, Tony Mascatello continues his exploration beyond rhetoric and into narrative painting. He pulls his subject matter directly from his imagination, allowing himself to focus on realizing the image. By placing people and things in juxtaposition within their surroundings, Mascatello elicits a narrative and creates a sense of time and space in which something ambivalent is happening. The small scale of the work draws us into an intimate space, one in which we may lose awareness of our bodies and our surroundings, pushing the act of viewing art into a form of participation. For the artist, making this work is a form of meditation.

Mascatello began showing painting and sculpture in the mid-seventies at the protean 112 Greene Street Gallery in New York City. He developed a notable presence in the SOHO art scene, exhibiting at Holly Solomon Gallery, the Drawing Center, Artists’ Space, MoMA PS1, Brooke Alexander Gallery, Edward Thorp Gallery, and Leo Castelli Gallery, among others. He worked as an assistant to the sculptor Gordon Matta Clark. His work has been reviewed in Arts Magazine, Flash Art, and New York Magazine.

At the same time, he was creating a sizable body of narrative performance art. These works include evening-length shows at The Kitchen, Franklin Furnace, and the Lucinda Childs Studio, as well as shorter pieces within group events produced by the artist Jean Dupuy at spaces like the Mudd Club, and the Whitney Museum. In addition to his own work, his acting at this time included experimental theater work for Mabou Mines and Robert Wilson. His work has been reviewed in Arts Magazine, Flash Art, and New York Magazine.

Belle Isle Viewing Room is pleased to announce Tony Mascatello’s first solo show with the gallery, an exhibition of his most recent paintings, marking his first showing in Detroit.